


In Your Arms

by melissanelissa



Category: Descendants (2015)
Genre: F/M, Friendship, I'm Sorry, M/M, also feels, established bal and dougie, kid!AU, lots of cuteness, slow burn jaylos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-08
Updated: 2016-10-08
Packaged: 2018-07-22 10:06:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 42,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7431849
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melissanelissa/pseuds/melissanelissa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Evie!" Jay called as he stared wide-eyed at the figure on Carlos's bed, then Mal's. Evie shrieked when she stood up and Ben rubbed his ears.</p>
<p>"What's happening?" He asked, looking at the two former villains.</p>
<p>Evie pointed at Mal, "They're tiny!"</p>
<p>"What?" Ben questioned before standing up himself. "Oh my god…They've been turned into children?"</p>
<p> (kid!au Bal, Dougie, and eventual Jaylos)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Forgiving does not erase the bitter past. A healed memory is not a deleted memory. Instead, forgiving what we cannot forget creates a new way to remember. We change the memory of our past into a hope for our future.
> 
> -Lewis B. Smeade

Jane walked through the hallways of Auradon Prep, bee-lining to her dorm room. Most Friday evenings she liked to hang out with Lonnie and her roommate and watch movies. But this Friday she'd asked for a raincheck. She had a paper for English due Monday and she had no idea where to begin. She was supposed to analyze the rhetorical devices used in Queen Belle's speech during the first annual celebration of the union of Auradon. Honestly, if she never had to hear the words 'Pathos, Logos, and Ethos' again, she would personally serenade her English teacher. On top of that, she needed to study for the Trig quiz that she had right after English class. She was tired of solving proofs and triangles and stupid trig functions. She huffed the loose strands of hair, attempting to blow them away from her eyes.

She finally reached her door and pulled out her key. After fidgeting with the lock she discovered that the door wasn't unlocking because it was already open. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. She knew she'd locked the door earlier that morning and her roommate normally attended the Yearbook club meetings after school.

She pushed the door open slowly, suspicion coiling in her stomach.

"Jane! Thank goodness, you're finally here! Took you long enough," Audrey scolded and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"Audrey?" Jane quirked her head. "What are you doing in my room?"

Her surprise at Audrey's presence was due mainly to the fact that Audrey and Jane ran in different circles. There wasn't any ill will between the two, not really, they'd just never really had a reason to hang out together. The two girls respected each other, sharing an occasional greeting if they passed in the hallway. They had different interests and different friends.

Audrey moved her backpack from beside her to on her lap, "I need your help."

Jane dropped her book bag by the door and walked over to Audrey, "Oh, I don't know, Doug's a much better teachers than I am, you should probably go to him."

"It's not about school, just listen." Audrey patted the bed beside her and Jane reluctantly sat down. Audrey looked around, as if ensuring that no one else was in the room and whispered conspiratorially, "I want to pull a prank."

"Um, okay. I'm really not the person for this—" She broke off with a gasp as Audrey pulled out Mal's spell book. "Audrey, how on Earth did you get that?"

Audrey smiled, proud of herself, and responded, "I bumped into her in the hallway and her books went flying. I just couldn't resist slipping it into my bag as I helped her pick up her books. I looked through it and found the perfect spell."

"You think that I can do it because my mother is Fairy Godmother?" Jane sighed. Most people assumed that because she took after her mother in looks that she must also have inherited Fairy Godmother's special talents. Unfortunately for Jane, she took more after her father in that regard. She was clumsy and not very good at most things really. She could do magic, but she messed up a lot and there wasn't really a reason for her to pursue it further, so she simply didn't.

"Well yes, you're half fairy. That means there's magic in you probably." Audrey shrugged, "Besides, it'll be mutually beneficial. Because I want to prank Mal, but if we go after Mal, we could probably get Carlos too."

"I don't want to get in trouble," Jane wrinkled her nose at the thought of enduring another lecture from her mom. "Besides, why do you think that I'd want to prank Mal and Carlos?"

"Because," Audrey said primly, "Would you have grabbed the wand if not for Mal's telling you that you weren't good enough?" Jane wished she could shrink into her shoes. Anytime someone mentioned the coronation she would feel guilt and regret and disgust and so many not fun feelings. She really didn't like thinking about the coronation. Which is probably why she'd never thought of it being Mal's fault. But as Jane thought about it she found that she couldn't make herself be anything more than mildly annoyed at Mal.

Jane shrugged, "Yeah, I guess you're right, but that was months ago. I've moved past that."

"Well I haven't. She stole my boyfriend in front of the whole school and got away with it." She thumped her fist on the bed spread, "Ooh!" She huffed, "I will not forget what she did."

"Audrey, you're with Chad now. You should just forgive her already." Jane insisted. She knew that she'd messed up at the coronation, but Jane was truly and thoroughly good and wanted to spread that goodness to others.

How Audrey managed to make rolling her eyes proper and mannered, Jane would never understand. "I _am_ with Chad, yes, but I can't let her think that what she did was okay. I'm totally over Ben now. This isn't to get him back, obvi. It's to make sure she knows that she can't steal what's mine without repercussion."

A harmless prank wasn't the end of the world. Maybe she'd even enjoy it. Jane decided that she'd help Audrey, but before agreeing she continued her line of questions. "Why Carlos?"

"He did turn you down, right? I mean we all know he's about as straight as Queen Merida's hair but still. That was a total diss and a slap to your reputation." Audrey explained, opening Mal's spell book.

Though Jane had already made her decision, being reminded of that particular embarrassment only strengthened her resolve. A funny prank as revenge for public humiliation? It seemed fair to Jane. "Alright, I'll help." She took the book as Audrey offered it to her. "But nothing dangerous." Her eyes followed where Audrey's daintily painted fingernail was pointed.

"A de-aging spell?"

"Mmhmm. I was thinking that just about everyone is super awkward when they're in their preteen years, right? It's like a rite of passage for being a human that you just have to be awkward. We make the cookie recipe, but add less of the magical components so they don't age back too far. Then we say the spell, get the targets to eat them and voila! They spend a few days in prepubescent hell before the magic wears off!"

Jane covered her mouth to stifle her giggles as she imagined Carlos and Mal running around trying to figure out what had happened to them. "Let's make them tonight?"

"Definitely."

* * *

"Oh no." Jane whispered looking at the dough. Audrey had left her to measure out the potion they'd prepared beforehand. Jane measured it out over the mixing bowl but as she was carefully making sure she didn't pour too much in, she'd hiccoughed and done exactly that.

"Everything okay?" Audrey called from where she was rummaging around in the pantry.

"Yes! Everything's just fine!" Jane called back and quickly flicked the switch to start the mixer. They didn't have enough magical ingredients to start over. Mal and Carlos would end up be a tad bit younger, but that'd still be funny. At least she hoped so. She began reading over the words of the spell so she at the least, she wouldn't jumble up one of the magical parts.

* * *

"It's called a bake sale, sweetheart. You know, to raise money to buy the teams stuff?"

Mal raised an eyebrow, "And I care because?"

"I just thought that you'd want to support your friends on the team. Jay's very passionate about tourney and the cheerleaders want to surprise the team with something awesome! But we can't get anything awesome if we don't get any money."

"Ugh." Mal groaned, "Fine, but this is for Jay and Carlos and it better be good."

Audrey didn't know if she meant the cookies or the gift but it didn't matter because everything she'd told Mal was part of the story she and Jane had concocted to convince Mal to eat the cookie. Mal forked over the two bucks for the cookie and grumbled, "Aren't all of you literally royalty? Why do you need my money?"

Mal turned away and Audrey panicked. She had to make sure that Mal ate the cookie. "Wait!"

Mal turned back, "What." She snapped.

"Aren't you going to try it?"

Mal laughed, "No way, I was going to give it to Carlos, he loves sweets."

"No!" Audrey shouted. "Uh, I mean, Carlos can't because the team can't know about the bake sale. It's supposed to be secret."

Mal rolled her eyes before taking an exaggerated bite of the cookie. "There, you happy?" Her eyes widened slightly as she chewed, "Wow, this is actually not terrible." She stuffed another large bite of the cookie in her mouth, finishing it quickly.

"Aw, I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." Audrey cooed before abruptly turning and walking away to hide the devious smile that was forming. "Toodles!" She called behind her.

"Whatever," Mal responded.

Audrey pulled out her phone and texted Jane.

_She ate it._

**Awesome! :) Just found Carlos, wish me luck! ;D**

_Bonne chance! xoxo_

Audrey grinned to herself. She didn't think that Jane would be the type of person to add emojis after every phrase. _How cute_ , she thought, before pocketing her phone.

* * *

Jane was at her wits end. They'd made the cookies directly after their conversation and the whole process had ran into dinner time. Jane checked the cafeteria for Carlos, but he was nowhere to be seen. She ran—well sped walked, she didn't want to seem suspicious now—to Carlos and Jay's room and knocked on the door several times but to no avail.

Taking a chance, she made her way through the hallways to Evie and Mal's dorm. She heard the clicking noise of the sewing machine stop as soon as her hand made contact with the solid oak door. The door swung open quickly and Evie's smiling face greeted Jane. "Hello!"

Jane couldn't help but smile back, "Hey Evie, I was wondering if you knew where Carlos was."

Evie pressed her lips together before saying, "Why?"

"I need to apologize for how I reacted to him turning me down. I realize that it was childish and he deserves to know that I'm sorry for it. Plus I made him some cookies to apologize. Please Evie, I want to make things right." Jane carefully arranged her features into the pouty doe eyed look that she'd practiced with Audrey, just in case.

Evie sighed and slumped a little against the doorframe before perking back up, "Okay fine, but don't make him upset again. Mal and Jay tend to go a little berserk when one of us gets hurt or upset." She gave a nervous giggle, "He's out in the gardens with Jay and Dude."

Jane beamed at Evie, "Thanks! You're the best!" She gave the blue clad girl a hug before bouncing off to the gardens. When she arrived she paused for a moment to take in the smells of the flowers and dirt and let it envelope her. She loved the gardens with their controlled chaos of leaves and vines and flowers. She walked along the gravel path, pausing when she saw Jay and Carlos up ahead, Carlos holding Dude's leash and laughing as Jay gesticulated wildly, recounting some story. Her phone buzzed and she pulled it out to read Audrey's message.

_She ate it!_

Jane covered her mouth to stop her from gasping aloud. She didn't think that they could trick Mal into eating a cookie. Mal wasn't very fond of sweets, or Audrey for that matter, and Jane had no idea how Audrey had managed the impossible.

**Awesome! :) Just found Carlos, wish me luck! ;D**

She typed back quickly, impatiently waiting for Audrey to respond. She didn't want Carlos to get away. Mercifully her phone vibrated again.

_Bonne chance! xoxo_

Jane smiled softly before putting the phone away and lifting her head. She squared her shoulders and took a deep breath. "You can do this." She reassured herself. She walked around the corner and said, "Carlos! Can I talk to you for a moment?" The change in atmosphere was immediate and disheartening. Carlos's eyes widened and he clutched Dude's leash tighter. Jay lost all amusement and stood up tall, crossing his arms and staring down at Jane. She swallowed nervously. She'd forgotten how scary Jay could be when he wanted to. "Please, I want to apologize, it'll only take a moment." She lowered her eyes to the ground when she felt tears pricking at them. She knew she was meek and she also knew she hated confrontation and being on the spot. She thought that maybe she could get through this without panic but she hadn't anticipated Jay's death glare.

She was debating whether or not this was worth it for a prank when Carlos nodded and tapped Jay's arm, attempting to hand him the leash. "Carlos," Jay protested, "Seriously?"

"Yeah, I mean she wants to apologize. The least I can do is to hear her out." Carlos scratched the back of his neck and shrugged.

He walked over to Jane as Jay mumbled, "The least you could do is ignore her but whatever." Jay walked further on the path, sitting down on a bench that was far enough away for him to be out of earshot, but close enough for him to be ready to step in just in case.

"Carlos," Jane began and paused. "I, um, well, heh" she laughed nervously. "I'm sorry this isn't easy."

Carlos bit his lip and nodded, "I know, that's okay. Take your time."

Jane felt herself relax a bit. Carlos always had that effect on her, which was one of the reasons she'd asked him out in the first place. Jane was normally a ball of stress and anxiety but being around Carlos made her feel different. He wasn't as emotionally exhausting as most people were to her. "I need to apologize for how I behaved after you, well after you turned me down." She began softly, "I shouldn't have yelled and made a scene, I just freaked out on you and it wasn't fair. I'm super embarrassed about it now." She chuckled sheepishly before adding, "And in hindsight, throwing myself into a tense situation after pulling an all-nighter to study and not caffeinating myself properly was not the best decision I've ever made."

Carlos let out a laugh, "No kidding. But I forgive you. It was a pretty out of character reaction for you so I guess I was just as much hurt as I was surprised. One question, though."

"Yeah?"

"Why'd you pull an all-nighter?"

"I had a test the next day in Trig where I needed to memorize the unit circle, plus I had a presentation for my Ancient Auradon History class and I wanted to make sure I did well," Jane explained.

"Yeah, but staying up all night doesn't help." Carlos looked at her confused, "You need sleep to do well on things."

Jane shrugged, "I couldn't sleep. I was too nervous." She didn't like where the conversation was going so she pulled out the plastic baggie holding the cookie and said, "I made you a cookie to say I'm sorry, but I forgot to mention it with my apology."

Carlos's eyes lit up and he grabbed the cookie, "Apology one thousand percent accepted. You're the best Jane!" He gave her a quick hug before eating the cookie with remarkable speed.

Jane giggled, "Carlos it's all over your face." Carlos made a show of cleaning his face that made Jane laugh further. She was glad that Carlos had actually forgiven her. She knew he would've probably eaten the cookie regardless but wasn't confident that he'd put the past behind them. She hoped that she wouldn't lose his forgiveness after the prank.

* * *

"No! That was mine!" Mal growled at Jay.

"I'm a thief, that's what I do best." He shrugged nonchalantly and ran a hand through his hair.

"Jerk!"

"Grape." Jay responded, popping the 'p'.

Mal gasped and Ben grabbed her arms as she lunged at Jay.

"Calm down, guys! It's just a board game!" Ben said as he restrained his girlfriend. "It's supposed to be fun."

Mal huffed before sitting back down next to Ben. "Fine, but this means revenge. I'm about to kick your butt into the next century Jay."

"We tried to warn you that Jay and Mal are competitive." Evie shrugged as she rolled the die. She marched her game piece—the blue one of course across the board before drawing a card. "Move a player of your choice back two spaces." She pursed her lips thoughtfully and said, "Sorry Jay, but I must avenge my bestie. Such is the way of life." Jay fake grumbled as he moved his game piece back two spaces. "You're welcome Mal." Evie smiled at her. "Mal?"

Everyone turned to Mal to see her staring off into the distance. "What's wrong, love?" Ben asked, resting his hand on her shoulder. She blinked slowly before turning to look at Ben.

"I don't feel good." She admitted. Alarm bells went off in Evie and Jay's head. Mal never admitted to feeling anything but on her best game. Showing weakness on the isle had never been allowed, they all knew this. Even after the four had finally accepted that they would never have to return to the isle, Mal still upheld this rule religiously.

"Yeah me either." Carlos softly side from Jay's side. "I'm really tired." He let out a yawn and leaned against Jay.

"It's not even eight thirty on a Friday night, C," Jay protested. Carlos was never this tired this early. He didn't even go to bed this early during the week.

Mal's eyes threatened to close and she struggled to stay awake. "I wanna go to bed now" She mumbled, words slurring.

"Mmhmm." Carlos agreed.

"Alright." Evie agreed, "We'll go with you." She waved her hand at Jay and Ben to help Mal and Carlos up. Evie wrapped her arm around Mal's waist and led the way to their dorm.

"Don't need your help…" Mal complained, though the bite of her words were lost when she yawned in the middle of it, elongating the words.

"Of course you don't," Evie reassured her. "Ben, go get blankets and pillows and stuff. Sleepover in my room."

"On it."

After a long and arduous walk back to Mal and Evie's dorm, during which Jay ended up carrying Carlos, the two finally managed to get Mal and Carlos upstairs and through the doorway of the girls' room. Evie had just finished tucking Carlos into her bed when Ben showed up with the requested bedding.

"They could just be really tired from a long week." Evie said, "But just in case there's something else wrong, I want to be here for them."

The three fell into an uneasy silence, divvying up the blankets between them.

* * *

The next morning the three teens awoke to screaming. Jay jumped to his feet, fight or flight mode initiated. The wailing was coming from Carlos's bed.

"Evie!" Jay called as he stared wide-eyed at the figure on Carlos's bed, then Mal's. Evie shrieked when she stood up and Ben rubbed his ears.

"What's happening?" He asked, looking at the two former villains.

Evie pointed at Mal, "They're tiny!"

"What?" Ben questioned before standing up himself. "Oh my god…They've been turned into children?"

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The past is never where you think you left it.  
> -Katherine Anne Porter

"Get away from him!" A blur of purple leapt across the room and onto Carlos's bed where he sat in the blankets crying. The two couldn't have been much older than four, but the fierce determination in Mal's green eyes made Jay pause.

"Mal, we want to help," Ben spoke calmly.

"No." Mal glared at him and crawled over to Carlos, wrapping him in a hug. She softly petted his hair and whispered, "It's okay, puppy, it's okay." Carlos's cries turned into whimpers and he hid his face in her hair. Jay stood frozen in place staring at his friends. He hadn't heard Mal call Carlos 'puppy' in years. When they were younger, they came up with codenames for each other for when they pretended to be villains like their parents. As they grew older their games started to become their reality and their codenames weren't as amusing anymore.

"She doesn't remember me," Ben said softly, looking at Evie and Jay. He felt his heart ache and found that he was hurt by her lack of recognition.

"You've haven't even known her for a year, and she's a child. Of course she won't remember you." Jay quipped. If Mal remembered Carlos despite returning to an age before the four met, then she should probably remember Jay and Evie as well. At least that's what Jay was hoping. Moving slowly he crossed the room and sat on the edge of the bed. "Mal?" Jay asked, tentatively. Mal looked up at Jay, with her normal determination, not fear in her eyes so he continued to speak. "Is Carlos alright?"

Mal bit her lip and said with all the bite that a child can muster, "He's scared, duh. We need to get back home before our parents know we're gone. I don't want to get in trouble." Her bottom lip began to pout. Evie motioned for Ben to stay back and she knelt by the bed.

"We have a new home now, M." Evie said, "We live in Auradon now."

Carlos lifted his head, and rubbed his eyes, "I wanna go home." He hiccoughed. Jay reached out and picked the boy up, ignoring as Mal growled at him, still fiercely protective of Carlos. He couldn't imagine what Carlos was going through right now. He'd always been afraid of many things, fear was how Cruella controlled him. Once Carlos had met Mal, and subsequently Evie and Jay, he'd begun to fear less, confident that he had people who would stand by him and protect him; but Carlos didn't have that protection when he was four.

"Later buddy, first we need you to meet a friend of ours." Jay stood up as Carlos looped his arms around Jay's neck, pressing his tear stained face into the collar of Jay's red jacket. "This is Ben." He gestured for Ben to move closer to the bed.

"Is he the one who kidnapped us?" Mal asked, tugging on the bottom of Jay's jacket.

"No, of course not." Evie asserted, shaking her head. "He's really nice to us. He's our friend Mal."

Mal stuck her nose in the air and crossed her arms, "Well I don't like him. I hate good people. I'm going to be evil someday. My mommy told me so."

Ben frowned but refrained from commenting. "We need to talk to fairy godmother." Evie decided.

"Agreed," Ben spoke. "I'll go get her. I don't think it'd be wise to take them through the school where everyone can see them yet." Evie nodded and picked up Mal, balancing the young girl on her hip. Mal stuck her tongue out at Ben as he walked toward the door.

Evie worried her lip with her teeth, "What are we going to do?" She asked Jay.

Jay felt as concerned as Evie looked but with Carlos in his arms, he knew better than to voice his fears. He merely shrugged and continued to rub Carlos's back as the boy hiccoughed and desperately clung to Jay's neck.

"And how exactly did this happen?" Fairy Godmother rubbed at her forehead, foreseeing how much trouble this would cause.

"We don't know," Ben said, self-appointed advocate for the group. When he had told Fairy Godmother that there was an emergency with the villains' kids she immediately rushed out of her office towards their room, leaving Ben no chance to explain the situation. "Last night they felt weird, went to bed really early, and then when we woke up this morning they were like this."

"This isn't another one of Mal's magical mishaps like the love potion is it?"

Jay frowned at her disdain. He was sitting on Evie's bed with Carlos across from him, playing with a tourney ball that Jay found underneath Mal's bed. How it'd gotten there, Jay hadn't a clue, but he found himself grateful for its existence because Carlos was having the time of his life rolling the ball back and forth to Jay, giggling like it was the funniest thing in the world.

"No!" Evie protested, "And how'd you know about that?"

"I take care to keep track of what magic goes on at this school. This looks like some sort of de-aging spell. You're lucky that it was only strong enough to make them children. If it was too strong, they could've faded out of existence!"

Evie gasped and clutched Mal tighter on her lap. "So what do we do?" Jay asked.

"In my experience, the duration of the spell is determined by the strength it was cast with. Seeing how young they are, they might be stuck like this for a while before it wears off." She explained. "Maybe even months."

"Months?" The three echoed.

"We can't know for sure unless we find who cast the spell. I would advise against any action until we can determine what exactly was used against them, just in case there are defense wards."

"Defense wards? Those aren't real are they?" Ben laughed nervously.

Fairy godmother raised an eyebrow, "It's advanced magic to be sure, but we don't want to take risks. This was deliberate against the two. I need you to figure out who could have the will and means to do this." She stepped closer to the beds. "I would do this myself, but I think more people would be suspicious if I snooped around than if you were to ask a few questions."

"Oh don't worry, E and I will definitely find them," Jay commented sharply, rolling the ball back to Carlos.

"Jay and Evie, I need you to watch over them for now. They know and trust you so I think it would be best for you to act as their guardians for the time being. Ben, I need to contact your parents and update them on the…situation. Do make haste to let me know if any developments occur." Fairy godmother nodded at them before taking her leave.

* * *

"Jay Jay Jay Jay!" Carlos yelled, jumping on the bed while Jay was lying on the ground, staring at the ceiling.

"What." He said shortly. It had been hours of the three teens attempting to entertain Mal and Carlos, and Jay was discovering that he simply did not have the energy to keep up.

"My favorite color is red and Mal's is purple which is made of red so my favorite color is better because without mine Mal's isn't purple!" Carlos babbled gleefully.

"Not true! Purple is better than red because you take two colors to make a better one!" Mal argued from across the room where Evie had managed to capture her attention by asking her to draw a picture for Jay.

"Yeah yeah well red is the bestest because I said so and my mommy said it's true too." Carlos bounced in a circle on the bed, tripping over the folds in the covers but recovering quickly.

"Favorite colors are subjective, you know." Ben said, making Carlos pause.

"What's subjection?"

"Subjective, it means special to each person. Your favorite color is different than mine because we have different reasons to like them," Ben explained in a way that Carlos could understand. Before Carlos could start to bounce again, a knock sounded on the door that captured the attention of everyone in the room.

Evie answered the door and squealed in delight when she saw Doug. "Good morning sweetie." She greeted him, giving Doug a kiss on the cheek, "What're you doing here?"

"Well, I got a call from Fairy Godmother who said that Dude hadn't been picked up from the groomer's so I picked him up. I was going to drop him off at Jay and Carlos's room but neither of them were there. I figured that they were with you so I brought him here." Doug explained, walking into the room with Dude in his arms.

"Doug, no!" Jay sat up, listening to their conversation. From the bed, Carlos sucked in a breath and began to pout, lip quivering. The tears began to roll down his cheeks and he stood like a deer caught in the headlights. Doug seemed to realize what was happening just as the wailing began. Jay rushed over to Carlos and scooped him up, cradling him so he couldn't see Dude.

Jay watched as Mal jumped down from her chair and ran over to Doug. With all her might she kicked him in the shin. "Ah!" Doug cried out, from pain and shock. Dude wriggled out of Doug's hands and ran around Jay's feet, both boy and dog trying to console the crying child.

"Mal!" Evie scolded, holding the writhing child back from causing more damage to her boyfriend.

"He made Carlos cry so I have to destroy him!" Mal screeched, scratching at Evie's arms.

Meanwhile, Ben started to chase after Dude, failing to catch him but succeeding in corralling the mutt out of the room. Ben grabbed Doug's arm and pulled him away from the door before swinging the solid oak shut. "What about Dude?" Doug asked, rubbing his soon to be bruised shin.

"He was fine without Carlos before, someone else can take care of him in the meantime." Ben said, slightly out of breath. He lunged as Mal broke free from Evie's grip and tore after Doug. He wrapped an arm around her stomach and lifted her off the ground, grunting when her flailing legs limbs made contact. "Mal, stop! Carlos is fine!"

"Carlos, please," Jay pleaded from across the room, "He's gone, the dog is gone!"

Bit by bit, Carlos lifted his head from where he'd buried it in the crook of Jay's neck, leaving a large wet patch from his tears. "He, he's gone?" The boy gasped, brown eyes focused on Jay. Jay walked over to the nightstand and grabbed a tissue to wipe the tears and snot off of Carlos's face.

"I promise. He had to leave really quickly, you wanna know why?" Jay asked, keeping his voice low.

"Why?" Carlos responded, eyes wide with seriousness.

"Because he was late for a tea party," Jay whispered conspiratorially.

Carlos covered his mouth as he started to giggle, "What? No that's silly. Doggies don't go to tea parties."

Jay struggled to keep up his solemn façade, "No really. He was in charge of bringing the tea cups but he totally forgot so now he has to go all the way down to the kitchen to get them." He turned and saw Ben a few feet away with a still struggling Mal.

Evie locked eyes with Jay. "Hey Carlos, sweetie, can you let Mal know that you're okay now? You know how she worries," she called across the room. Mal paused at Evie's words and looked over at Carlos who waved. She waved back, before wriggling again, this time to be put on the ground. Ben lowered her until her feet touched the carpet, then released her. He moved to stand between her and Doug when she began to leave his hold. However, instead of continuing her rampage against Doug's shin, the purple haired girl bounced over to Jay, tugging on his pants leg.

"Up!" She demanded.

"How strong do you think I am?" Jay quipped, before crouching to lift Mal with his other arm, one child on each hip. "The two of you are heavy." He grunted.

"Hush." Mal shushed him, placing a hand on his mouth. Jay feigned indignance but complied. "Puppy?"

"I'm okay Lilly." Carlos sniffed, "He went to his tea party so I'm safe."

"What?" Mal scrunched her eyebrows together in confusion.

"Lilly?" Ben asked Evie quietly.

"We had lots of nicknames for each when we were younger. Hers came from Lila, the German word for purple. My mom's from Germany. She used to speak it around the house a lot." She whispered back in a hurried explanation.

Ben nodded, "So that's why she calls him puppy."

Evie nodded in return, watching the two kids now giggling at the idea of a dog at a tea party. She clapped her hands together and smiled, gaining their attention. "I don't know about you, but I'm just famished. I think some lunch is in order."

"Lunch?" Carlos echoed.

"Second meal of the day," Doug clarified.

"Second?" Mal looked hopeful and Ben felt his heart ache for the second time that morning. He knew that food was a sore topic for the four and so had assumed the worst, but even in his worst imaginings, he'd thought that the parents would've attempted to provide enough food when they were children.

"Here in Auradon, you get three meals a day." Ben declared, "And sometimes even a snack."

"Let's have a picnic," Evie sighed, ever the romantic. "Besides, we accidentally skipped breakfast."

It was common for the four to accidentally forget to eat. As their stay at Auradon lengthened, they improved, but Ben found that it was still common for one of them to get wrapped up in a project of some sort and completely forget to feed themselves. Growing up on the isle made it easy for them to ignore their hunger without a second thought. "That sounds like a great idea," Ben agreed. "Doug and I can go prepare it."

"Actually," Evie said, slinking over to Jay and taking Mal from his arms. Jay shifted so he was carrying Carlos on the other hip and sighed gratefully. "I was thinking that Doug and I could prepare the basket and you and Jay could pick out a spot." On the last word she pushed Mal into Ben's arms, grabbed Doug, and ran out of the room, laughing.

"Evie!" Ben exclaimed, holding Mal out at arm's length. Mal crossed her arms and glared at him. "Um, hello." Ben nervously spoke.

"Your hair is stupid," Mal said. Jay snickered but feigned innocence when Ben cast him a quick look.

Ben cocked his head at an angle, "Well I think that your hair is the loveliest shade of violet."

"You do?" Mal asked, caught off guard. "My mommy says its ridiculous."

Ben cautiously set her on the ground, kneeling in front of her. "Your hair is not ridiculous, it's beautiful." He stood and grabbed a blanket from the table where Evie had neatly stacked them. He reached out and offered his hand to Mal. "Come on, let's go find somewhere to have a picnic."

Mal looked at Ben, then at Jay and Carlos, before shyly taking his hand and walking through the door that Jay was holding open. Ben looked away from Mal's direction, unable to hide the smile overtaking his face. Suddenly a thought came to him, "Jay, text Evie and make sure that she packs strawberries."

"You do it." Jay wrinkled his nose, more for principle than actual feeling.

"Hands full," Ben reminded him.

As Jay was opening his mouth, Mal asked, "What're strawberries?" She drew out the syllables in the word enjoying the sound of it.

"Something you'll love, trust me."

* * *

"How do you feed a child?"

"Pardon?" Ben asked, pausing from where he was slicing strawberries. Evie was watching as Jay and Doug were running around with the kids. Although it looked more like Mal was running around, Carlos was doing his best to keep up and Jay and Doug were supervising.

Evie turned and looked at Ben. "How do you feed a child?" She repeated. "Is there anything special you have to do? Like, I don't know, how a baby needs mushy stuff?" Evie's voice was subdued and Ben surmised that she probably felt insecure about not knowing how to take care of Mal and Carlos. It wasn't like the isle offered a Parenting 101 class. Auradon didn't either, but Ben had some idea of the basics.

"I'm not an expert," He began, grabbing a paper plate, "But more or less, take food you think they'll like, make it bite-sized, and put it in front of them." He split the strawberry slices between the two plates, adding half of a peanut butter sandwich and some cheese cubes. "Evie, you don't have to worry, taking care of children is exhausting but not rocket science. I've been a camp counselor for a few years now, Doug used to babysit his baby cousins, and you and Jay know Mal and Carlos inside and out. We'll figure it out."

"Yeah." Evie took a shaky breath, "You're right. Thanks, Ben." She smiled at him and stood up to fetch Mal and Carlos. The four gathered on the blanket at Evie's call. Jay sat near Ben, almost falling into the King when Carlos plopped himself onto Jay's lap.

"Oof!" Jay complained, "I don't remember you being this clingy when we were younger." Jay grabbed the plate Ben offered to Carlos and held it where Carlos could easily grab the morsels. He grabbed a sandwich of his own, ravenous from chasing around Carlos and Mal. He looked down to see Carlos staring at the plate, unsure. "Eat up, C."

Carlos picked up a piece of strawberry in his little fingers. "Red." He declared and popped the fruit in his mouth. "Mmmm yummy." He said as he chewed, grabbing another bite. Mal settled herself in between Jay and Ben with her own plate.

With her mouth full of peanut butter she poked Ben in the leg and said, "Wahs a strawbewwy."

Ben laughed, before reprimanding, "Chew and swallow before speaking Mal, it's polite."

She swallowed the food. "Your face is polite," she said, mimicking his tone of voice. She gave him the child version of the finger by sticking her tongue out in Ben's direction.

"You have some strawberries on your plate, why don't you give them a try? Carlos already did and he seems to like it." Ben pointed to the bright red fruit on her plate.

Mal looked at the strawberry with suspicion as Jay laughed, "He likes it because it's the sweetest thing here. Auradon awoke his sweet tooth and not even turning into a kid can make that go away."

"Why is it so red?" Mal looked around at the teens.

"That is a wonderful question, Mal." Doug chimed in, immediately entering lecture mode. Ben watched as Jay took that as his cue to tune out and grab another sandwich while Evie listened closely. "Strawberries are red because of some chemicals called anthocyanins that are made in plants by combining a sugar molecule with an anthocyanidin molecule. Separately they are colorless, but when combined they create bright colors which is also why the fruit grows brighter in color as it ripens. But they don't only make red, for example, purple grapes or blueberries. It all comes down to pH—"

"No no no," Mal interrupted. "Why are they so red? They're too red for food," she insisted

Evie laid her hand on Doug's arm to placate him and answered, "It's because they're fresh. They're much better than old apples or bruised pears, I promise."

Ben and Doug shared a look, an act that became more common as the two spent more time with their girlfriends. One of the villains' kids would make a casual comment about life on the isle that would jolt Ben's and Doug's worldviews. It was easy to forget how bad the isle was when you lived in Auradon. The boys had learned quickly though to let the comments slide and not ask about them. If any of the four wanted to talk about the isle, which was rare, then they would pursue the topic themselves. Otherwise Ben and Doug had learned to keep their mouth shuts to avoid accidentally sound ignorant on topics they didn't know much about.

Mal nodded and finally took a bite of the red fruit. Her eyes grew wide as she chewed. She made sure to finish chewing and swallowing before turning to Ben, her rosy mouth forming a small 'o' of surprise.

"Good, right?" Ben laughed, grabbing one of the intact strawberries and taking a bite. Mal nodded and returned to her plate, attacking her strawberries as viciously as Carlos had moments earlier.

* * *

Evie was filled with questions. When Ben had first met the girl, he never would have expected the transformation she underwent. She had initially shown that she wasn't very bright, reminding Ben of Chad, but as time went on Ben discovered that it had mostly been and act and that she was intelligent, easily keeping up with him and Doug in class. He was glad that she didn't hide her intellect anymore because the three took a few advanced classed together, and had formed a study group to meet before exams.

While at Auradon, Evie had discovered that she loved learning things. When she didn't know something, she asked a question. So far she'd bombarded him about the napping and sleeping habits of four-year-olds—of which Doug looked up on his phone discovering that they needed over eleven hours of sleep. She then went on to ask about how often they need baths, where she could get patterns for children's clothes, and how to keep them entertained during class. Evie was asking questions faster than Ben could answer them, making his head spin. Mal and Carlos had escaped after eating and were a few yards away, picking dandelions. Ben wished he could join them in their youthful bliss, easily fascinated by the stringy yellow weeds, but he stayed put and focused on responding to the most recent question from the Evie inquisition.

"I think your guys' rooms should be fine, I mean you'll want to put sharp and dangerous things in a high place or a locked drawer." Ben trailed off, in thought. "You'll probably want to keep Mal's spell book hidden away as well," he commented.

Evie drew in a sharp breath, "Mal's spell book. I totally forgot about it!"

Jay sat up, from where he'd lain, head pillowed in Evie's lap. "Do you think we could use it?" He asked, fixing his hair quickly.

"I don't know but it can't hurt. We have to find it!" She insisted. She and Jay stood up.

"Wait!" Doug said, standing up as well. "What about Mal and Carlos?"

Evie paused, then huffed, "Fine. Ben, clean up the picnic. You and I can take them on a walk around the gardens. Doug and Jay, go look in our room. Jay, you're to find it, Doug, you're to put the room back together when he's done destroying everything."

"You're not going?" Jay questioned, "You sure?"

"Yes. I'm sure. We need one of us to stay with them until they start to trust others, and you're better at finding things than me." Evie explained. Jay nodded and squeezed her shoulder once before setting off towards the school, Doug trailing behind awkwardly trying to keep up with Jay's swift pace.

* * *

"Look look look Evie look!" Mal tugged at Evie's hand, small legs moving rapidly as she tried to pull Evie along.

"What is it, Mal?" Evie laughed.

"Look! It's purple! Just like me! 'Cause I'm purple too!" Mal pointed towards a patch of violet colored flowers, delighted in her find.

"You're right! It is just like you!" Evie exclaimed, crouching down to examine to petals.

"Does that mean that Lilly is a flower?" Carlos absently asked from Ben's arms, tearing apart one of the dandelions that he'd picked and carefully placing the individual strands in Ben's hair.

"No, she's definitely human." Ben responded. "Those flowers are called Verbena. Pretty, huh?" Carlos hummed in agreement, eyes never leaving his task of covering Ben in the mutilated dandelions.

"Evie! Ben!" Jay yelled at them, capturing their attention.

Evie stood and walked near Ben and waited for the boys to reach them. When they arrived, Doug buckled over, breathing heavily and Jay burst into an explanation, "I couldn't find it anywhere! I even checked my room in case she'd dropped it in there. Also, I might have broken into her locker to look but wasn't there either!"

"Nowhere?" Evie squeaked.

"What's nowhere?" Mal asked, looking up at Evie.

Doug finally straightened up, having regained his breath, "There's absolutely no way we could've looked over it. The spell book is missing."

* * *


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's not our job to toughen our children up to face a cruel and heartless world. It's our job to raise children who will make the world a little less cruel and heartless.
> 
> -L. R. Knost

The four teens sat around the table in Jay and Carlos's room. The silence was pervaded only by the rapid clicking of Evie's sewing machine and the occasional giggle from Mal and Carlos who were reclining on Carlos's bed watching a children's cartoon on a laptop. Every time Evie flicked the switch to lift the foot, she looked up at the boys at the table. Jay was sitting with a piece of paper in front of him, absently tapping his pencil against the table, his forehead, Doug's arm, and anything else within his reach. He looked as though he were concentrating, brows furrowed. Occasionally he would bite his lip and look as though he were going to write something down before pausing and resuming his pencil tapping.

Evie adjusted the fabric underneath the needle to sew another line. She flicked the switch down and pressed the pedal gently. Evie was hastily making simple clothing for Carlos and Mal to wear. The two only had the outfits they had awoken in and Evie refused to let them wear the same clothes for two days in a row. She turned the blue fabric forming Mal's dress so that the needle would follow the line of pins she'd made. The fabric was blue because Evie hadn't had time to design and prepare to make Mal and Carlos custom clothing, so she only had spare blue cloth. She had managed to find enough red fabric to make Carlos a pair of shorts, but other than that, she only had varying shades of her favorite color.

When she reached the end of the cloth she flicked the switch up, again to readjust. This time her eyes found Ben. He was sitting next to Evie and across from Jay. He had his head pillowed in his arms, laying on the table. He was stressed, and Evie knew it. He'd shifted several times, unable to find a comfortable position. His hair was out of place, and seeing the King disheveled from anything but tourney was not a common occurrence. He sighed softly—again—and turned his head towards Evie. For a brief moment they locked eyes and Evie saw the concern that he was unable to mask. Ben worried about them a lot, Evie also knew this. Even from when they'd first met, Ben had wanted to take care of them and make everything better. It wasn't a stretch for Evie to assume that this situation was driving Ben crazy. He didn't like being helpless, feeling like there was nothing he could do to find a solution.

The presser foot went down. Evie was concerned about having clothes for Mal and Carlos in time. Sewing was easy for Evie, she'd had many years to hone her craft and could work with just about any type and style of fabric, but despite her ability, sewing took time. You had to know what you wanted to sew and plan accordingly, purchasing or crafting a pattern, cutting out fabric, piecing the fabric together, and then finally sewing it. The whole process was time consuming, which was why Evie normally took a few days to create a new outfit. Between school, homework, joining the Mathletes, and hanging out with those she cared about, time was becoming a scarce commodity, meaning she didn't have as much time for sewing. But Mal and Carlos needed clothes that fit them, this was simply a fact that Evie acknowledged as true.

The villain's kids didn't have much money to their name, so purchasing clothes was never an option. Monetary problems were why Evie sewed clothes for all of them in the first place. The four had discovered that buying clothes in Auradon was expensive. The princes and princesses that lived here never batted an eye at such expenses, but when you don't come with a fortune attached to you, obtaining clothes becomes more difficult. However, purchasing fabric in bulk was another story, one that fit much more easily into their price range. The current problem was time. Mal and Carlos would need several outfits which would take time that Evie didn't have, especially if she was now to spend most of it chasing after them. She hurried to finish the dress, which had to be regrettably plain and boring in order for her to have enough time to make Carlos some clothes before they put the kids down for bed.

She flicked the switch up and tied the thread, snipping off the excess. She looked up and this time observed Doug. He was on his laptop, ignoring Jay's ministrations with the pencil, and taking notes about whatever it was he was researching into further. When Doug was faced with a problem he didn't know how to handle, his go-to response was to research anything he could find related to that topic. Evie assumed that he was probably looking up parenting strategies and tips, or maybe reading an article about reversing de-aging spells. Although now that she thought about it, Doug would probably have a harder time finding anything useful about magic on the Internet. Lots of people were parents, but not many people used magic anymore, so there wasn't as much of a need for magical forums as there was for parenting forums.

She looked down at the dress, assessing what needed to be done, and admiring her work. Despite not having enough time to make it fancy, she still had a standard to uphold, so she added a bow to wrap around the waist and be tied in the back. She set the fabric in place so that she could hem the bottom of the skirt.

"Wait!" Jay exclaimed, making everyone at the table jump. Evie stuck her finger in her mouth from where she'd pricked it on a pin—again—and waited for an explanation for his outburst. "Evie, what about your magic mirror?"

Evie pulled her finger out of her mouth and hesitated, before saying, "I don't know if that'll work."

"What do you mean? Of course it will! Just ask where Mal's spell book is, and whoever has it we go take down!" Jay asserted, looking hopeful.

Evie stood up and walked over to where she'd left her purse on the dresser. She rooted around inside of it, pulling out the broken mirror. Returning to her seat she explained, "After the coronation, Mr. Deley reported my mirror to Fairy Godmother. She put a range on it."

"A range? What do you mean?" Ben asked, chin propped on his fist.

"I can use it to ask for things like where my phone is or to define a word, but if I try to ask it for something that's too far away, it gets static-y. Like if I asked where something was miles away it wouldn't show anything. I don't really know how far the range is because I haven't needed to use it in months," she trailed off, clutching the mirror in her hand.

"We can try, though, can't we? Just in case?" Jay asked desperately.

Evie looked at her mirror, "Mirror, mirror just a look, where can I find Mal's spell book?"

Just as Evie expected, the mirror displayed nothing but static on its screen. She turned the mirror to show the others, avoiding Jay's fallen expression.

"I'll keep trying," She insisted, "Maybe sometime during the day I'll happen to be close enough for the mirror to find it."

Jay stood up from his chair, tossing his pencil on the table. Ben reached out and grabbed the skittering pencil before it could fall off the edge and started playing with it, effectively signaling the end of the conversation. As Jay paced, Ben fidgeted, and Doug researched, Evie returned to her sewing. She startled again when Jay placed a hand on her shoulder.

"You scared me!" she complained, placing her hand over her heart. "What do you want?"

Jay gave her a smile, abruptly changing moods. "Mal and Carlos fell asleep, come look." Evie's eyes lit up and they crept over to the bed. Mal and Carlos were curled up, facing each other. Carlos had his thumb in his mouth and Mal had reached out and grabbed part of Carlos's shirt.

"Oh my goodness," Evie cooed. "This is too precious. We need a picture so we can hold this over them when they turn back."

"That's exactly what I was thinking," Jay agreed, keeping his voice low to avoid waking them.

"Doug," Evie whispered, gaining his attention. "Quickly go get your camera. We need a picture of this." Doug shut his laptop and bounded out of the room. Ben joined them at the bedside when Doug returned, snapping a few images.

"You know, instead of using these pictures for embarrassment, you guys could just make them a photo album so they can know what happened," Doug suggested, looking through the photos he'd just taken.

"Why would we do that?" Jay countered incredulously. "That sounds like a lot of work."

"Perhaps," Ben cut in, "But I like the idea. I'm assuming none of your parents ever made you a scrapbook with baby pictures, so we have a unique opportunity to give Mal and Carlos something they've never experienced before."

Jay raised an eyebrow, "You realize that there aren't cameras on the island, right? And even if there were, how would we get the photos made? Besides, how do you know they even want them? Like you said, it's something we've never experienced before," he finished bitterly.

Ben swallowed and bit his lip before answering, "I apologize if I upset you Jay, but was I wrong in assuming none of you have had a scrapbook made for you?" Jay and Evie remained quiet. "We don't know what will happen when Mal and Carlos turn back, but at least we can have a gift for them that can help explain what happened to them."

Evie nodded, "I think it's a good idea." She knew that she wouldn't have wanted a scrapbook of her childhood on the isle, but if she had lived here in Auradon, things would've been different. "Doug, do you mind being the official cameraman?"

"Not at all," Doug saluted her, almost dropping his camera in the process.

Evie smothered a giggle at her clumsy boyfriend. "Alright, we should probably wake them up soon."

"Why on earth would you suggest that?" Jay objected, "They're quiet and not moving."

"According to a parenting website I was on earlier, by the time a toddler reaches four years of age, he or she should begin to outgrow napping," Doug stated, "If they do nap, then it shouldn't exceed an hour's length in time or bedtime gets a little, well, yeesh," He gestured drawing a line across his throat. "If they don't nap, however, quiet time is suggested where they spend some time relaxing as to avoid overstimulation which can result in tantrums. Also—"

"Okay!" Jay held his hands in the air, surrendering, "You win! We'll wake the gremlins up." Evie moved so she could sit on the side of the bed. She gently shook Mal's arm.

"Mal sweetheart, rise and shine. It's time to wake up," Evie babbled as Mal began to stir.

"I don't wanna," Mal mumbled.

She clutched the fabric of Carlos's shirt tighter before opening her eyes. She released Carlos and stretched, yawning and lazily rolling over into Evie's leg. Evie reached over Mal and began to wake Carlos up in a similar manner.

He took his thumb from his mouth and sleepily rubbed at his eyes. "Momma?"

"Carlos, it's Evie." Carlos looked at Evie and sat up.

"Where's my mommy?"

"We're in Auradon now, remember? Evie and I are taking care of you, buddy." Jay sat on the opposite side of the bed, near Carlos. Carlos nodded demurely and stuck his thumb back in his mouth as he wriggled his way into Jay's lap.

Evie poked at Mal again, "Wake up or Jay, Carlos, and I will do something evil and we won't let you participate."

Mal scrambled to stand up. "You wouldn't," she pouted, unwilling to miss a fun opportunity to be evil, even though she wasn't entirely sure what being evil entailed.

"We would, but now we don't have to because you're up." Evie insisted.

Mal looked around the room and shook her head. "Nuh-uh, Ben wouldn't let you be evil, he's too nice."

Ben laughed. "Well. she's got you there. Also, there's no time for evi. We only have ten minutes until dinner."

Both Carlos and Mal perked up at the thought of dinner. Carlos insisted on being carried by Jay, and Mal wouldn't settle until she was perched on Ben's shoulders, looking down at everyone. Evie trailed behind them, fingers interlocked with Doug's.

"How do you think dinner will go? The school is about to see Mal and Carlos for the first time," she worried, swinging their conjoined hands gently.

Doug shrugged, tugging her hand with the motion, "I'm not sure, but it's not like we can keep them hidden forever."

Evie knew that, but it didn't stop her from being concerned. At least Mal and Carlos were in a good mood, with Carlos babbling to Jay about something and Mal laughing as she discovered a few dandelion strands in Ben's hair and calling him "the dandelion dande-Ben" as if it were the most hilarious thing she'd ever experienced. Evie sighed and continued to walk towards the dining hall.

* * *

"Ben, I don't know what to do!" Evie cried into the phone. "They won't calm down! I can't get them in bed."

She stood in the doorway of Jay and Carlos's bathroom and watched the chaotic scene before her. She'd bathed Mal and Carlos, an event that had gone much better than she'd hoped after dinner had proven to be very tense. The dining hall had been quieter than normal, with many faces turned towards their table, watching and whispering. No one directly approached them, but the attention alone was enough to put the teens on edge. Mal and Carlos quickly picked up on their unease and began to fuss, causing a bigger scene than Evie wanted.

When she finally got them back to the room and into the tub so she could scrub off the dirt from their picnic, she let herself believe that they were in the clear. Mal and Carlos gleefully splashed in the water and let her wash them. She lifted them out of the tub and wrapped them in separate towels. She had just finished dressing the two in their older self's tee-shirts to wear as nightgowns when everything went haywire. When she'd opened the door to let them back into the bedroom they ran out of the room and the calm fell apart. The two were running around, bouncing on the beds, climbing on the chairs, and yelling. Evie was pretty sure that they were trying to sing something, but for some reason had decided that the proper volume for this serenade was at the top of their lungs. Her eyes followed Jay as he chased them around the room to corral them onto Carlos's bed, only succeeding in containing one child at a time.

Ben's voice sounded in her ear, "Try reading them a story, I always loved that when I was younger."

"We don't have any children's books. We don't actually have any books other than our textbooks right now," Evie responded, whining more than she'd intended. She ran a hand through her curls, frazzled from the crazy evening, and attempted to smooth them back into place.

"Make one up then, it just has to be something to distract them while they fall asleep," Ben suggested. "Make sure it's not too interesting though or else they'll want to stay up all night to know what happened next."

"Make up a story, okay," Evie nodded, despite Ben being unable to see her gesture. "I can do that, I think."

"Are you sure you don't want any help?" Ben asked.

Evie could feel his worry over the phone. He'd offered earlier to help put them to bed, but Evie had wanted her and Jay to do it themselves. Doug had read online that routine was important for children and she wanted to start right away. Ben wouldn't normally be there to put them to bed, so why have him there one night and not the next? She and Jay had decided that the girls would temporarily stay in his room since neither of them wanted to be alone in taking care of a four-year-old and Jay's room had the largest beds. Part of Evie was regretting that she'd insisted on her and Jay doing this alone, but she was determined to see this through.

"Thanks, but no. Um, I gotta go, goodnight!" She hung up the phone and walked over to Carlos's bed. "Jay!" she called loudly, "Would you like to hear a story?"

"Evie, is now really the time?" Jay droned as he lifted Carlos up off the ground, little legs still moving.

Evie gestured him over. "Jay, it's story time," she insisted. "Please."  
Jay made a face of doubt, but set Carlos on the ground and joined her on the bed.

"Once upon a time," she began, looking at Jay, but speaking loudly enough to be heard around the room. "There was a little girl with purple hair and a little boy with white hair who liked to go on adventures." The yelling had stopped. Her mind was racing as she attempted to come up with a story on the fly that would capture Mal and Carlos's attention. "They had a friend who also happened to be the King. One day, the two went to the King's castle so that they could have a picnic but everyone there was running around in circles!" She paused, collecting her thoughts and ignoring Jay's raised eyebrow.

"Why were they running in circles?"

Evie looked away from Jay, down at Carlos, who had made his way over to the edge of the bed. She smiled, knowing that if she had Carlos's attention, Mal would probably follow. Jay reached down and lifted him onto the bed.

"You can only find out if you're under the blankets," Jay stipulated.

Carlos nodded, accepting this condition gracefully, and crawled under the covers, turning to Evie for the next part of the story.

"Can I know too?" Mal asked bashfully. "I don't really care, I just want to know what the little girl with purple hair did."

"You know the rules, under the covers," Jay said, pointing to a spot next to Carlos. Mal hesitated, sensing a trap.

"Lilly, come on!" Carlos said, patting the bed. "I want to hear what happens next!"

Mal jumped down from the chair she was sitting on and skipped over to the bed, climbing up the bedspread with minimal help from Jay. She settled under the blanket next to Carlos and crossed her arms defiantly.

"I'm just here so Carlos can hear the story," she explained, clarifying her behavior.

"Of course, dear," Evie placated. "So everyone in the castle was running around in circles because no one could find the King. The King was missing!"

Jay gasped dramatically. "Not the King!" he cried, clutching at his heart.

"Yes! The King was missing. Everyone in the castle was looking for him. They asked the purple-haired girl whose name was, um, Molly and the white-haired boy whose name was Carmen, what to do."

"What did they say?" Carlos asked Evie, completely enraptured.

"Molly said that they should look in the forest but Carmen had another idea," Evie continued. "You see, Carmen looked under a table and guess what he found?"

"What?" Mal breathed.

"He found a potion bottle!" Evie answered. "The bottle had been filled with an invisibility potion. 'The King must have been given this potion and drank it, not knowing that it would turn him invisible!' Carlos—um, I mean Carmen determined. Molly agreed that he was right, but they still didn't know how to find him." As Evie spoke, she lowered her voice and slowed her pace. "No one could see the King, so no one knew how to find him. They looked all over the castle, calling out for him. They looked in the throne room and the ballroom and the dining room and the sitting room," Evie continued, listing off every type of room she could think of. She watched as Carlos and Mal's eyelids drooped, growing heavier. She knew that they'd had a long and active day and was glad that they were finally crashing after being riled up. "Finally, they checked his bedroom but they still couldn't find him." Mal yawned and Carlos snuggled further into his pillow, still listening carefully.

"Molly and Carmen didn't give up because the King was their friend. Just then Molly had an idea! 'What if you can only find an invisible person if you're also invisible?' She asked. This made sense to Carmen and Molly and everyone in the castle so Carmen and Molly decided to drink some of the invisibility potion. Once they could no longer be seen, they began to search the castle again, but to no avail. Discouraged, they decided to go on the picnic and take a break. 'What if we never find him?' Molly asked, scared for her friend. 'Don't worry, we'll find him. Don't lose hope.' Carmen told her. Molly trusted him so they walked on the path through the woods to their special picnic spot."

"I hope we find him," Mal mumbled, blinking heavily.

"You'll see." Evie paused to clear her throat and take a moment to think. "When they got to the special picnic spot they were surprised to see that a picnic was already set up! The King was there too, sitting on a blanket. 'I've been waiting for you' he said, 'I was afraid that you'd gotten lost.' 'We were looking for you!' Molly exclaimed, glad that her friend was okay. 'Well, here I am!' The King said and they all sat down for the picnic and played games and had a fun afternoon. The End," Evie finished with a sigh. She reached over and turned out the bedside lamp, satisfied that Carlos and Mal were asleep.

She and Jay carefully stood up from the bed and moved over towards Jay's bed, illuminated by a single lamp on his nightstand. "That was definitely a roller coaster of a tale," Jay joked, nudging her with his shoulder.

"Shush, you. You couldn't do better if you tried," Evie bumped him back. "It served its purpose."

"Is that a challenge I hear?" Jay quirked an eyebrow at her before ruffling her hair. "Just joking, E. Your story was cute. Though next time I think a blue haired girl named Evelyn and a brown haired guy named Jabir should make a guest appearance."

Evie laughed and the two mechanically prepared for bed, exhausted from the tiring day. They climbed into Jay's bed, laying back to back. Jay's presence was comforting to Evie, reminding her that she wasn't alone. They'd shared a bed before on the isle. Among their group, it was a known fact that if they needed to get away from their house for the night, Evie's door—technically window—was open to them. Evie always knew when Jay didn't meet his quota of stealing for the day when she heard his knocking on her window. She always knew when Cruella had a bit too much to drink that night or when Maleficent had punished Mal again for not being evil enough. There was once a night when they had all showed up at her window and Evie joked that she had a bad habit of collecting strays. That, of course, didn't prevent them from all piling up on her—queen sized—bed, and for a moment allowing themselves to relax and feel safe. They would get through this together, Evie was sure of it. She listened to Jay breathe beside her and let herself slip away, relieved to finally have the chance to sleep.

* * *

Jay awoke to a clicking sound and a strange pressure on his chest. His instincts kicked in and he was wide awake, assessing the situation as soon as he opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was Doug and Ben standing at the end of his bed, looking at the screen of Doug's camera and chattering quietly about the images. The second thing he noticed was there were more people in his bed when he awoke than when he'd gone to bed. Evie was in the same spot she'd fallen asleep in, as was Jay, but sometime during the night, both Mal and Carlos had crawled in with them, managing not to wake either of the teens. Jay was impressed, both he and Evie were light sleepers. Mal was in-between Evie and Jay, clutching Evie's arm while Carlos was half draped over Jay, thumb in mouth.

"What time is it?" Jay croaked, and shifting so he was leaning on his elbows while attempting to avoid disturbing Carlos.

Ben and Doug looked up from the camera, momentarily frozen. "It's seven thirty," Ben responded, checking his watch. "We didn't mean to wake you, we just wanted to ensure that everything was alright and once we saw this we couldn't help but take a picture."

Evie began to stir at their voices, opening her eyes when she realized that she couldn't free her right arm. "Jay?"

"We have visitors," Jay explained. "In the bed and room."

"Good morning, lovebug," Doug smiled, leaning down and kissing her forehead. "We came down to check on you guys and make sure you'd survived the night. We were thinking of grabbing some breakfast soon?" He ended his statement with the inflection of a question, inviting rather than telling.

Evie sat up, extracting her arm from Mal's clutches and looked around the room, still confused and not entirely awake. Jay mimicked her and sat up, cradling Carlos in his lap.

"I think we should show Mal and Carlos how many different ways that eggs are cooked here," Jay suggested, giving Evie time to clear her head.

"Yes, food," She agreed, stretching her arms.

"Can I have strawberries?" Mal sleepily asked, rolling over into the spot that Evie had been laying in moments earlier. "I like strawberries. They're yummy."

"After you get ready," Jay rubbed her back for a moment before turning to wake up Carlos. The domesticity of the moment was leaving Jay unsettled, and he was more than ready to break the metaphorical spell and get some grub. He also didn't want to let himself get used to the feeling of Carlos sleeping on top of him. He knew when Carlos turned back, he'd probably be embarrassed by the whole thing and Mal would probably make everyone swear not to talk about it again.

Jay was conflicted about the scrapbook because it would memorialize a closeness with Carlos that Jay couldn't have when Carlos was older. The thought of that made his heart ache. However, thanks to his years on the isle, he managed to ignore this feeling and lock it deep inside of him, deciding to deal with it later, or perhaps never. After dressing, the group made their way down to the empty dining hall to get some food before another long day began.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The best way to predict your future is to create it.
> 
> -Abraham Lincoln

Jay stood between the two swings, pushing Carlos or Mal forward whenever their swing neared him. Evie sat on a bench a few yards away, a textbook on her lap and notes splayed across the rest of the bench. While Jay had completely forgotten about school obligations, Evie hadn't and was preparing for a test that was coming up in her calculus class. Jay knew he had an assignment he needed to finish. He needed to answer questions about the importance of Beast uniting the surrounding lands and banishing the villains, but the lesson as a whole was rather tactless and Jay had found himself avoiding what he saw as a rather sore subject for him. Unfortunately, it seemed like everyone in his history class loved hearing about the villains, so the lectures droned on and on. Jay wasn't too fond of that subject, but he knew enough stories from the isle to write a decent essay, so he elected to remain quiet.

"Higher, Jay! Higher!" Mal called, swinging her legs.

"Careful there Mal, you don't want to go into space!" Jay joked while pushing her swing with a little more force. He looked over at Evie and saw her take her mirror from her bag, checking for what had to be the millionth time that day.

"Hey, E!" Jay called out. She looked up from the mirror, clutching it tightly in her hands. "Maybe you should go back to the dorm and lie down a bit. Or better yet, get some sewing done. That always relaxes you," he suggested, shrugging.

"I can't leave you alone," she argued, returning her mirror to her bag and picking up her flash cards.

"Ah, come on, we'll be fine. You're making yourself sick with worry by checking that mirror every fifteen minutes." Jay regretted suggesting the mirror the previous day, but he still wasn't sure how else to find Mal's book. "Please?"

Evie scrunched her lips and sighed. "Fine. You're right. Don't let them get too dirty," She warned him as she closed her books and stacked them on top of each other. "I'll see you at dinner, don't cause too much trouble while I'm gone."

"No promises," Jay flashed a mischievous smile in her direction as Mal and Carlos called out goodbyes.

"How much longer are you guys going to be swinging?" Jay asked, turning his attention back to his charges. "I can't do this forever."

"Too bad!" Mal wiggled in her swing. "We're swinging forever!"

"Forever? That's a bummer. I guess you won't get to play jump rope with me."

Jay turned and saw Ben walking up with perfectly coiled jump ropes. Jay let Mal and Carlos swing past them without giving them a push and fist bumped with Ben.

"Did Evie call?" Jay inquired, already knowing the answer. He knew that Evie trusted him, but he also knew that she knew what Mal was like when she got fussy.

"She sure did, and I brought a toy." Ben lifted the jump ropes so that Carlos and Mal could see. "The problem is, I need people to play with." He directed his words towards the younger two.

"I wanna play!" Carlos beamed, swinging his legs in an attempt to slow down his swing. When the swing neared the ground he slid off, stumbling when the swing came back and hit him on the shoulder. "Owie." He pouted at the swing and rubbed his shoulder. While Jay checked up on Carlos, Ben grabbed Mal's swing to slow her down.

"Do you want to join us, Mal?" Ben queried.

"Nope!" Mal shook her head, then shifted her weight, trying to get the swing to move again.

"Why not?"

"No one plays with a rope, silly," Mal scoffed, jutting out her chin.

"Wait, so you're telling me you've never played jump rope before?" Ben gasped, over dramatically. "What a tragedy. I guess I can't make you play, but it's such a shame that you'll miss out on such fun." He began to walk over to Carlos and Jay.

"Wait!" Mal hopped down from her swing and tugged on his pants, "I'll play, but just this once."

"Excellent." Ben smiled and the two joined up with Carlos and Jay.

* * *

"Cinderella dressed in yella went upstairs to kiss her fella, made a mistake, kissed a snake, how many doctors will it take, 1…2…3…4" The rope tangled around Carlos's legs and Ben and Jay stopped swinging. "Wow, Carlos that was the best one yet!" Jay congratulated.

"Jay, what was that?" Ben looked at Jay, slightly horrified.

"What?" Jay bent down to untangle the rope from Carlos's leg.

"That jumping song was kind of…um" Ben trailed off. At first, Ben had been the only one reciting jump rope chants, singing about princesses and bubble gum. Neither Mal nor Carlos were very good at jump roping so Ben and Jay had been going slow and repeating a lot. Mal was very determined to improve and keep up with Carlos who seemed to naturally adapt to the game. Jay offered to take a turn counting to let Ben's voice rest and recited the first chant that came to mind.

"What about it?" Jay didn't understand Ben's reaction. "We used that chant all the time on the island."

"Can you just say a different one this time?" Ben looked uncomfortable and for the life of him, Jay couldn't determine why.

He shrugged, "Alright."

Mal stepped up to the rope and Ben and Jay began to swing. "Cinderella dressed in green, went downtown to buy a ring. Made a mistake, bought a fake, how many days before it breaks? 1…2…oh! Don't worry, Mal, you'll get there," Jay laughed as Mal huffed. Carlos was doing better than her every round and Mal was resolute not to be left behind.

"Jay, come on man," Ben complained again. Jay raised a questioning eyebrow. "You can't use chants like that, it's messed up," Ben clarified.

"No, it's not," Carlos argued, coming to Jay's defense. "Cinderella is a mean green bean."

"Yeah! She made her sisters go to the isle and they're not even evil!" Mal stood beside Carlos.

"I don't understand," Ben hesitated, realizing that he'd opened a can of worms that he was not prepared for.

"Everyone on the island knows why people are there. People love to gossip and talk, it's not like we can have many hobbies there. We may not like the isle, but we do understand the logic behind most of our imprisonments. There's another thing that everyone on the isle agrees on and that's that Anastasia and Drizella shouldn't be there," Jay said, leaning down to pick up Carlos who had been tugging on his leg during his explanation.

"Who are Anastasia and Drizella?" Ben began to curl up the rope, sensing that their game was over.

"Cinderella's stepsisters. They may be spoiled brats, but they aren't evil," Jay continued. "They watch over the kids on the island because most of our parents forget to look after us. They taught us games and songs. I'm not saying they're good people, but they're definitely not evil," He finished lamely. He hadn't intended on launching into a tirade in front of Ben, but this was a topic that all the kids from the isle agreed on, no matter who their parents were.

"I…didn't know. I'm sorry," Ben apologized. "There is still a lot that isn't known about the island. We talk about banishing your parents to the island and celebrate as if everything was over, but we forget that their life went on after we stopped watching. I still don't think those jump rope songs are appropriate, but I admit that I still have much to learn about your past. I—" Ben was cut off as his phone began to ring. "Excuse me a moment." He answered his phone and took a few steps away, grateful for the interruption.

Jay hadn't meant to cause a scene, but seeing Mal and Carlos as kids was bringing up memories of his own childhood. Ben's rushed apology told Jay that Ben had never intended to upset them. Ben had a heart of gold, and Jay didn't want to take out his frustrations about mistreatment on the island on the king. Jay attempted to collect himself, focusing on the feeling of Carlos playing with his hair. He made a mental note to snag some more hair ties from Evie and watched at Ben hung up the phone and joined the group again.

"That was Doug. He wants us to meet in his room, he says he found some useful information," Ben explained. He turned on his heel to lead the way back to the castle.

"Wait," Mal whined, jumping up from where she'd been sitting on the ground. She bounded forward and snatched Ben's hand. Jay couldn't help but to snort at Ben's delighted expression as Mal tugged Ben towards the castle, any lingering emotions from the altercation disappearing.

* * *

Doug steepled his fingers, spinning slowly in his desk chair as he went over his lecture in his head one more time. When the awaited knock sounded on his door he leapt up, knocking over several books in the process. He scrambled to right the books and opened the door, inviting his friends into the room. He flitted back to his chair and noticed as Jay took stock of his surroundings. Doug had a habit of analyzing the body language of the villains' kids and had discovered that upon entering a new environment, Jay would scan the room, almost as if analyzing for something. For what, Doug wasn't sure, but he was mostly confident that this was a habit that had been necessary on the isle, so he had refrained from commenting.

Doug's room was similar to Jay's except with forest green accents rather than Jay and Carlos's navy blue color scheme. Instead of a television and game console, Doug and his roommate had elected to construct a computer station including several monitors and CPUs. Unfortunately, they only had one chair so occasionally they had to play rock paper scissors in order to determine who got to use it at certain times.

"So, I went to the library because I wanted to see if there were any books about magic because honestly at this point we could use any sort of information that we can find," Doug launched into his ramble of a lecture, "But the librarian informed me that she was banned from stocking the shelves with books pertaining to anything that would be pertinent to our situation so she directed me to Fairy Godmother. I went to her office this morning and told her I was researching into Mal and Carlos's condition and she gave me this." He held up a leather bound book with gold lettering.

"A Beginner's Guide to Magic?" Jay read. "If she thought it would help why didn't she let us borrow it earlier?"

Carlos tugged on Jay's hair and said, "'Cuz we're the bad guys Jay, duh."

Doug sometimes forgot that Mal and Carlos being young doesn't mean they weren't paying attention to what was being said. He cleared his throat and cut off whatever Jay was going to say next, "Not the important point at the moment, we can talk about Fairy Godmother's good-evil prejudice at a later time. As I was saying, I got the book and I read through it, well skimmed mostly and read what was relevant or potentially useful."

"I'm assuming you found something?" Ben encouraged Doug as he paused to take a breath.

"Yes! Well, sort of. It's more of a general thing, like—"

"Get on with it," Jay snapped impatiently, attempting to free his hair from Carlos's surprisingly strong grip.

"Yes, sorry." Doug looked down at his notes. "From what I understand, the simpler the spell, the more ways there are to break it. For example, we all know about Mal's love potion. It wasn't particularly complicated magic, therefore could have been broken by the counter spell or a potion or by anything that cancels out magic really."

Jay paused in his battle to liberate his hair, "So what does that mean for us?"

"I'll get there," Doug promised. "The more complex the spell is, the harder it is to break. We don't know what spell was used against Carlos and Mal, which is why Fairy Godmother warned us from trying anything magical. If the spell is strong magic, it would only have one way to break it, and other magics might only make the situation worse."

"Thank you for the reminder that we're pretty useless," Jay sniped more out of bitterness than malice. He set Carlos down to play with Mal after finally freeing his hair.

Doug took a breath before starting again, "From what this book was describing, aging spells do not appear to be advanced magic. If we were more knowledgeable about the ways of magic we could probably find multiple ways to reverse this."

"What about Fairy Godmother? Couldn't she do something? She's pretty good with that wand of hers," Jay suggested.

"I did put some thought into that. I think that if she were able to, she already would have offered. We all know Cinderella's story, right? The magic that she performed was more about transfiguring objects. Aging spells are a very different category of magic than what Fairy Godmother is well-versed in. Also, she's pretty busy in general, it's not like it's easy to run a school like this one." Doug shrugged, attempting to justify the headmaster's lack of response. "My point is, we need Mal's spell book. We can't have that falling into the wrong hands. Jay, you should work with Evie to make a list of anyone, and I mean absolutely anyone, who might even be slightly annoyed with Mal or Carlos. Then Ben and I can split the list and investigate."

Ben nodded, "That way we can narrow down the suspect pool."

"Precisely. People might be more willing to open up to us because, well, let's face it Jay, you're intimidating." Doug jerked his shoulders again in a semblance of acceptance of fate. In response, Jay had crossed his arms and was shifting his weight from one foot to the other. Doug was worried that he'd upset Jay and that he'd never agree to Doug's plan. Jay seemed like the type to want to complete the interrogations himself, but Doug feared that Jay's protectiveness would shine through as an intensity that would just scare those being questioned. Doug let out a sigh of relief when Jay finally gave a small nod.

"Fine. You do realize that this means that Evie and I will have to entertain four-year-olds during classes right?"

"I've also already thought of that possibility. Speaking of which, where is she?" Doug asked, closing his notebook and setting it on the desk near him.

"Probably sewing," Jay replied. He settled himself on the ground near Carlos and Mal before elaborating, "She's kind of freaking out because Mal and Carlos don't have children's clothes and she refuses to let them wear the same thing two days in a row. Honestly, I don't think that they'd care very much as long as they don't smell too pungent."

Ben let out an unsure laugh, "You know that you could've just asked right? I can get you kids clothes for them."

"Yeah, yeah, but we don't have that kind of money," Jay waved him off dismissively.

"You wouldn't have to pay," Ben insisted.

"Isn't that how one purchases clothes?"

"Jay," Ben joined him on the ground, "My parents know that you don't have money. That's why they waved tuition and boarding fees. We can get clothes for you guys easily." Ben paused, a thought occurring to him, "Wait, is that why Evie sews all of your clothes?" Jay remained silent, fingers fidgeting with his bootlaces. "I'm going to make a call and get some clothes for them." Ben finished, determined. Jay shifted, slightly uncomfortable. He wondered if Ben was trying to make up for their earlier disagreement with the jumping songs. People never gave things away for free on the isle. Jay knew he was going to have to find a way to settle this debt.

* * *

True to Ben's word, when Jay and Evie awoke the next morning they found brown cardboard boxes outside of their door, one labeled for Mal, another for Carlos, and the third one merely bearing the label 'toys'.

"When Mal turns back we better make sure that she keeps Ben around," Jay commented, carrying the boxes inside.

"Oh my god!" Evie laughed, opening up the box marked for Carlos. She pulled out a Dalmatian onsie pajama, complete with ears and a tail. "We're definitely getting a picture of Carlos in this before they turn back."

Jay sliced through the tape sealing the box of toys and opened the flaps. He pulled out a stuffed dog and said, "Someone in Ben's family has a sense of humor."

"Probably Belle." Evie laid out some of the clothes, matching outfits together. "Carlos, sweetheart, come here and pick out what you want to wear."

Carlos, still in his nightclothes, scampered over to Evie. Evie lifted him long enough for him to point to the red shorts and striped tee shirt before returning him to the ground. She tossed the clothes at Jay, along with socks and shoes.

"Get him ready, please," She commanded, moving on to explore the box for Mal and ignoring Jay's salute and "Yes, ma'am". As with Carlos, she prepared a few outfits and let Mal choose.

After everyone was ready for the day—a process that took significantly longer when four-year-olds were added to the mix—Evie stopped Jay and said, "I'm taking Carlos to my classes, and you're taking Mal." Jay clutched Carlos to him for a moment, giving Evie a look of confusion. "I have chemistry this morning and we're doing a lab. I don't want Mal around chemicals, do you?" she explained.

"What're chemicals?" Mal asked, sitting on the ground. Evie twitched when she saw that Mal had removed her shoes for the third time that morning. "Is it Jay day? Jay day Jay day Jay day!" She cackled to herself, playing with her shoes.

"Fair point, but we're trading at lunch." Jay conceded, handing Carlos to Evie. He tossed his book bag over one shoulder and a squealing Mal over the other. He pocketed her shoes and they made their way out of the room. "Let Jay day begin," he quirked.

* * *

"It looks like we have to back titrate the Sodium Hydroxide to determine the molar concentration before we start the main titration," Doug spoke, skimming the lab booklet.

Evie tied her hair back and adjusted her safety goggles. "You get the chemicals and I'll set up the glassware."

"Roger that."

As Evie set up the stand to hold the buret, she glanced over at Carlos. He was sitting on a stool, coloring some pictures that Doug had thoughtfully printed out. He'd also brought some mazes and word searches for Carlos to puzzle with if he tired of coloring. She dropped the spinner magnet in the graduated cylinder and placed them both on top of the hot plate. Evie surmised that she probably had the best boyfriend ever. When two of her best friends were turned into four-year-olds, he immediately set out to learn whatever he could in order to be helpful.

Evie ran her fingers through Carlos's hair, "Let me know if you get bored okay? It's a long lab so make sure to speak up."

"Okay, Evie." Carlos absently agreed, more focused on turning the entire coloring page red with splashes of purple and yellow. She smiled at his dedication and turned back to the lab station where Doug was returning with several bottles of chemicals.

Doug grinned at her, "I got the last bottle of phenolphthalein." He gestured with the bottle of indicator, "We might have to share."

"Not a problem. Alright, let's get started. What does the first question say?" Evie and Doug busied themselves in the titration, making sure to check on Carlos every once in awhile, and the morning flew by.

* * *

Jay was not having fun on Jay day, whatever it was that Mal meant by 'Jay day'. Mal had been fine during his hour and a half Trigonometry class, content to color in all of his triangles as he drew them. It would have been mildly annoying if one were trying to earnestly solve the question, but Jay was not one to pay attention in math, sans the bare minimum to avoid failure. He passed Evie in the hallway, Mal on his shoulders. They shared a glance and went on to their next classes, ignoring all the stares from their peers. Modern Auradon History class was where Mal started to fall apart, which was fitting as it was Jay's least favorite class.

As luck would have it, today's topic was the socio-economic effects of the banishment of the villains to the Isle of the Lost. When the teacher announced the topic, Jay rolled his eyes so hard he wasn't sure they could come back. "Seriously?" he voiced. "Do we have to do that today?" He gestured towards Mal, sitting on his lap. She peered at Jay, then at the teacher, trying to understand his disdain.

"Having a child in your care does not excuse you from class. Please refrain from such outbursts in the future," Mr. Gammal clipped. Jay pulled out his notebook to jot down notes, mentally steeling himself for the lecture. As Gammal spoke, his classmates would turn and look at him. Jay stared them down until they bashfully looked away. He wasn't sure if their attention was because of Mal, or because they were talking about villains and they wanted to see his reactions.

"Now a fascinating market to look at was the clothing industry after Maleficent was banished," Jay groaned internally as Mal perked up at the sound of her mother's name. "Her evil magic had many in fear of using anything with a needle and caused a depression in clothing sales."

"I don't see why they were afraid of clothing, that's stupid," Mal said defiantly, standing in her chair.

Mr. Gammal paused in his lecture to address her comment. "The people were not afraid of clothing, but rather of needles. The problem was that no one wanted to use needles, which meant that clothing couldn't be crafted, therefore there were no clothes to purchase, resulting in the decline in sales."

"Blah blah blah, you're all scaredy-cats. S'just a little needle." Mal stuck out her chin and glared at the teacher. It was as if she was being belligerent just for the sake of causing a disturbance, as if the mention of her mother reminded her where she was.

"Mal," Jay pleaded, "Not now."

"No!" She stomped her foot. "He won't say that my mommy scared him but she did! I know it!" Jay wasn't even sure how to argue with her, or what was particularly upsetting her. He did however know that this was the first time he'd ever been kicked out of class, and it wasn't even his fault!

He walked down the hallways, trying to find a secluded corner. Once Gammal had raised his voice at Jay, the crying and screaming had begun. Jay bounced Mal on his hip and patted her back, but she wouldn't calm down. He ducked outside into an empty courtyard and pleaded with Mal.

Her responses included incoherent sobbing and kicking, none of which were helpful. Doug had warned him about potential tantrums, but Jay hadn't taken him seriously. He now wished that he'd listened more closely. He could only remember a few snippets, one being that tantrums are caused by overstimulation and that he needed to remain calm. Other than that he was floundering, grasping at ideas to help her. He set Mal on the ground and she immediately crumpled, laying on the ground as she cried.

"Mal it's okay! We're away from him and that class and you don't have to cry!" He sunk to the ground next to her, frustrated and desperate. He huffed as he watched the tears rolling down her face. "Look, Mal, Lilly, you're alright. Listen to me, you have to calm down." He reached out and pet her hair in what he hoped was a calming and comforting manner. He continued to murmur to her until her sobs finally lessened.

"Are you ready to talk now?" Jay asked, sitting cross-legged in front of her. He pulled a tissue out of her pocket, discovering her shoes that he'd forgotten to adhere—um, return—to her feet, and wiped her face and nose. Mal sniffled, but sat up, squatting in a perch on her socked feet.

"I w-wanna," she paused to take in a gaspy breath, looking at Jay through tear soaked eyelashes, "I wanna go home." She babbled before flinging herself into Jay's lap. He grunted but caught her, holding her close.

"Why do you want to go home?" Jay probed gently. Jay and Mal didn't normally have heart to hearts when they were any age, so Jay felt off kilter, unsure of how to proceed, especially after witnessing her throw a tantrum.

"I h-have to be evil-l like my mommy or she's—she's gonna be m-mad," Mal hiccoughed, then scrubbed at her eyes.

"Mal, there's something you need to know," Jay spoke. "We don't have to be evil anymore, no matter what our parents say."

"We don't?"

"You might as well know what's been happening. You and Carlos are supposed to be older. You're supposed to be my age." Mal furrowed her wispy eyebrows as she looked up at Jay, green eyes shining with confusion and leftover tears. "A spell of some sort was put on you guys to make you little again so that's why you don't remember being older."

"How old am I?" Mal asked, bottom lip pouting.

"You're sixteen years old." Jay lightly tapped her nose with his index finger. "And a few months ago all of us decided that we wanted to stay in Auradon and be good because being evil doesn't make us happy."

"It doesn't? But I thought that we had to be evil. We're rotten to the core," Mal insisted, rather than argued.

"We don't have to be evil Mal, and we don't have to be afraid of our parents anymore because they're far away on the island and we're safe here at school."

"Do you promise?"

"What?"

"Do you promise that we're safe?" Mal's voice, even when muffled against Jay's chest, sounded vulnerable and insecure, so unlike her normal confident and snide self.

"I promise," Jay held out his pinky and Mal twisted hers around it. "Pinky promise."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.
> 
> ― Nelson Mandela

"It's just not right," Jane insisted, setting her tray down with more force than she'd intended. She winced as the loud noise attracted a few curious glances and sat down at the outdoor picnic table, Audrey taking the seat next to her. "We need to fess up."

"No! Jane, we absolutely, positively cannot do that." Audrey shook her head, squinting at Jane in the midday sun.

"Audrey, this wasn't how it was supposed to go, they were never supposed to be this young, plus the spell was already supposed to have worn off!" Jane paused and looked around, self-consciously. "We have to do something." Jane bit into her sandwich, chewing without tasting.

Audrey chased a blueberry around her plate with her fork as she spoke, "It's not that big of a deal. So what, they spend a few more days as a few years younger, what does it even matter anyway?" She speared the blueberry and lifted it to her mouth, as if punctuating her statement with the small berry.

Jane frowned at Audrey and pressed her lips together, observing Audrey's behavior for a moment before responding. "What's your problem?" Jane asked, impressed with her own boldness.

Audrey tilted her head slightly, smile frozen on her face. She placed her fork on her neatly folded napkin and laced her fingers together. "Excuse me?"

Jane's confidence wavered at the coldness in Audrey's tone. "You're so nonchalant about everything, I just don't understand you. You're not some heartless ice queen, and for the life of me I can't figure out why you want people to think that you are." She petered off at the end and averted her eyes from Audrey. She hastily stuffed another bite of her sandwich in her mouth so she couldn't say anything further.

"Is that what you think of me?"

Jane flicked her eyes up, surprised by the sudden change in Audrey's voice. Audrey had sounded, strange, almost insecure even. Audrey kept up a mask of indifference, but her previous question had already given away that she had been affected by Jane's accusations. "That's what a lot of people think about you Audrey, not just me." Jane spoke softly and slowly, carefully navigating through what she wanted to say versus what she should say. "I know that you're more than that when I see you helping another cheerleader after practice so that she can figure out a routine or when you spend your evenings in library to perfect an assignment. I've seen that you're more than that, but you hide it really well." Jane shrugged, feeling as if she were being scrutinized, as if Audrey was clinging to every word she spoke, and frankly Jane didn't enjoy the significance being placed on her words.

"Oh." Audrey's perfect pink lips pouted slightly, breaking her façade. She gazed past Jane contemplatively, and Jane worried with the crust of her sandwich, silently begging Audrey to say something—anything—else. Jane knew that this was unfair of her, but she felt uncomfortable by seeing this side of Audrey. She hadn't expected their conversation to take this turn, but she knew that there was no heading back.

"It's not like everyone talks about it all the time, it's just you can be kind of unnecessarily mean when there's someone competing with you for something." Jane let out a nervous laugh, rambling to end the tense silence between them. "Look it's not all that bad, I mean Chad seems to like it so there's that…" Jane trailed off, again abandoning her platitudes in favor of her sandwich.

Just when Jane was sure that she was going to fade from existence because of the uncomfortable atmosphere, Audrey finally spoke up. "I wasn't aware that I came off as so heartless, I only wanted to be the best."

"You know, you can be the best without having to put people down in order to get it," Jane responded, unconsciously matching Audrey's demure tone of voice. Audrey shrugged dismissively, but Jane persisted, "No really, you already have. You're the best cheerleader on the squad and you didn't use any sort of foul play to get there. You even help the other cheerleaders to improve. Would you do that if you were trying to undercut everyone? You can be kind with cheerleading, so why not with people in general?"

Audrey hesitantly met Jane's eyes and Jane was relieved to see a hint of determination in them. "I need to think about some stuff, but no matter what, you can't tell anyone about what we've done, alright? Just because I'm having a personal paradigm shift doesn't mean that you can go tell everyone the deets."

Jane hid a smile behind the other half of her sandwich. "I promise I won't tell anyone about what was said."

"Good," Audrey sniffed, back to her usual mannerisms. She gripped her tray and stood up, "I'll see you at practice later, yeah? I was thinking of a new routine that we could do that involves the mascot."

"'Course I'll be there." Jane waved as Audrey strode off, long ponytail swaying with her movements.

* * *

"Carlos, what d'you got there?" Jay crouched down in the hallway in front of Carlos. Evie stopped walking and tugged on Mal's arm, leading the girl back to where Jay and Carlos were.

"I found it!" Carlos chirped. "I found it at lunch and lookit! Says your name on it, says J-A-Y so I kept it safe." Carlos uncurled his fist to proudly reveal a crumpled piece of paper with Jay's name on it.

"Good job, Carlos! You're right, it does say Jay's name!" Evie cheered and Carlos beamed at her, distracted long enough for Jay to pry the paper from Carlos's fingers. "'Amana and I are very proud of you, honey." Jay cast her a quick glance at the unexpected sound of a name he hadn't been called in years.

Jay stood, unfolding the paper. He scanned the page, analyzing the blocky handwriting. Part of being a thief required attention to details. Jay would've recognized the handwriting if it belonged to someone he was friends with, but as he followed the lines and curves he found that he couldn't place who had authored the note.

"What does it say?" Carlos asked, head craned back to look up at Jay.

"Nothing, puppy, it was just my name." Jay handed the note to Evie to read. The note was not blank but rather held a message for Evie and Jay, reading: _Meet Fri 2100 North Wing Entrance for Book._ Evie's eyes widened slightly and she crumpled the paper again, stuffing it in her purse. She looked at Jay who mouthed 'Talk later' at her.

She nodded and clapped her hands together, "It's time for class! Carlos you'll spend the afternoon with Jay, and Mal, you and I get to have some girl time." Evie and Jay shared a fist bump as they took their respective four-year-old to their afternoon classes."

* * *

"Carlos," Lonnie cooed, keeping her back to the small child, "There's someone who really wants to meet you and be your friend."

"Whozzit?" Carlos asked, swing his legs over the counter where he and Mal were seated. During lunch, Lonnie had suggested that she and Evie watch Mal and Carlos during the Mathletes meeting. Jay had agreed, not wanting to figure out how to participate in Tourney practice while watching small children.

Lonnie turned, holding Dude in her arms, "This is Dude, he lives here in Auradon with us."

"Lonnie," Evie warned, stepping away from the proof she'd been writing on the chalkboard. "Don't."

"Just trust me," Lonnie pleaded, "Please."

"No," Carlos gasped quietly, eyes wide. Mal's eyes flashed green and a nearby stack of papers went flying towards Lonnie. Lonnie ducked and placed Dude on the ground who yipped happily, unaware of the potential turmoil his presence caused.

"Carlos, please listen to me." Lonnie straightened up and lifted a protesting Carlos off the counter. Evie quickly moved to intercept Mal and prevent the small girl from creating havoc. "Dude is really nice, I promise. All he wants is to be your friend. Dude and Ben are friends. Why can't you and Dude be friends?"

Carlos sniffed and buried his face in Lonnie's shoulder, only lifting it for a brief moment to say, "Because he'll eat me."

"What?" Lonnie paused, derailed by his admission. "Why would he do that?"

Carlos lifted his head again, watery eyes meeting Lonnie's. "I was bad and left home and bad boys get eaten by mean dogs," he explained, tears threatening to spill.

"Dude is the nicest dog you'll ever meet, you should give him a chance," Lonnie reasoned, wiping a stray tear from his freckled cheek. "Pretty please? With sprinkles on top?"

"What're sprinkles?" Lonnie heard Mal ask Evie from the countertop, watching the exchange over Evie's shoulder, scrutinizing Lonnie.

Carlos thought for a moment and said, "I guess they wouldn't let a mean dog go to a tea party, right?"

"Uh, sure?" Lonnie returned. She didn't understand his logic but figured she could chalk it up to the babblings of a child. "Will you let me introduce you two?" She asked him gently, waiting for his consent. Carlos nodded, bottom lip sticking out slightly. Lonnie knelt, feeling Carlos tense up as they neared the dog.

"Carlos, this is Dude, Dude this is Carlos." Carlos stared at Dude who sat with his tail wagging enthusiastically. "Do you want to pet him?" Lonnie asked. Carlos gave a tentative nod and reached out slowly. He patted the dog a few times, retracting his arm when Dude gave his hand a friendly lick.

"Ew," Carlos wrinkled his nose and wiped his hand on his shorts.

"He likes you," Lonnie cooed. She was concerned that this exchange would end in tears, but she was determined to see it through.

"Really?"

"Of course he does, look at his tail go," Lonnie explained. Carlos beamed at her, tension released and wriggled out of her arms so he could pet Dude again.

"Next time you go to a tea party, Mal and I wanna go too, okay?" Carlos spoke, stroking the dog. Dude yipped in agreement and Carlos recoiled, falling backwards on the ground, startled by the noise. He whimpered as Dude crawled onto his lap and tried to lick his face.

"Okay!" Evie lifted Carlos up, knocking Dude off in the process, "That's enough exposure for one day." Lonnie hummed in agreement and handed Dude to another nearby Mathlete, asking him to escort Dude from the room.

"I'm so proud of you Carlos, facing your fear like that!" Lonnie congratulated, clapping her hands together in excitement.

Evie gave Carlos a smile, "She's right, you were very brave. Why don't you and Mal go play now, alright?"

Carlos sniffled, but nodded, accepting the praise and the opportunity to play. Returned to the counter next to Mal, they proceeded to pick up where they left off in their imagination game, Mal casting suspicious glances at Lonnie every once in awhile.

"That was really bold, Lonnie," Evie commented, picking up her piece of chalk and returning to her proof.

"I know," Lonnie admitted, retrieving a nearby textbook. "But I really think it needed to happen. He and Dude are such good friends that it seems tragic for him to be afraid again."

"You're just lucky that you did this with me present and not Jay," Evie said, giving Lonnie a small smile that betrayed her stern tone. "Thank you though."

"That's what friends are for." Lonnie beamed before saying, "Watch your negatives, E."

"What? Oh no," Evie erased part of the problem and diligently began to rework it, chatting comfortably with Lonnie as they worked through sets of practice problems.

* * *

"What? I've been trapped in a tower? Oh no! Someone please save me!" Ben cried dramatically from his perch on his desk. He readjusted his tiara that had been jostled by his movements. His mother had dropped off some costumes earlier for Mal and Carlos to play with and as soon as Mal spotted the tiara, she'd determined that Ben had to wear it and wasn't allowed to take it off.

"I'll save you!" Mal promised, running around in a purple tutu and carrying foam sword. Ben smiled as she and Carlos pretended to battle, Mal the brave princess on a quest to save Ben, and Carlos the scary dragon trying to keep Ben locked away. During lunch Ben had offered to watch Mal and Carlos in the evening so Evie and Jay could get some homework done. Ben also knew that they would probably enjoy a small break from being on a constant watch to make sure Mal and Carlos were safe and comfortable.

"Roar!" Carlos giggled, pretending to spit flames at Mal who dove onto a pile of pillows to dodge. He clutched a stuffed dog to his person and wore a shield as a back pack. He held the toy in front of him and roared again, "Susan says roar too!"

As soon as Ben had unpacked the box of costumes and found the stuffed animal, Carlos had claimed it. Mal and Carlos determined that the dog's name was Susan and that Susan could shoot lasers and fly. Which of course led to Ben tragically being captured by Susan and trapped in a tower awaiting his rescue.

"Magical fairy blast!" Mal shrieked, throwing a feathered boa at Carlos.

"Nooo!" He clutched the boa, "My only weakness is feathers!" He collapsed on the ground and stuck his tongue out, pretending to be dead. Mal scampered over to Ben, climbing onto his desk chair.

"Come on, come on!" she insisted, tugging on Ben's hand. "Let's go just in case he comes back to life!"

"My hero," Ben swooned, "You saved me!" He followed her to his bed helping her to climb up and sitting next to her.

"You're safe now, we're back in the castle. Dragons can't get here because we have the anti-dragon shields up," Mal explained, watching Carlos sit up, bored of being dead.

"Oh thank goodness, I was worried about that," Ben quirked. "How did you know that feathers were the dragon's only weakness?"

"Everyone knows that," Mal gave him an incredulous look, "Duh."

"Oh, of course, how could I have forgotten?" Ben laughed.

"It's okay." Mal patted his leg, "Being kidnapped by a dragon is scary, you must have been so 'fraid you weren't thinking."

"Susan said that he wants to be a good dragon now and so do I," Carlos called from his spot on the carpet.

"Okay!" Mal chirped, swaying so that her purple hair swung around her face. "But no breathing fire inside, we don't want to burn down the castle."

"Yay!" Carlos climbed on the bed with Susan's tail clutched tightly in his fist. He settled down facing Ben and reached across to poke the king.

"Yes, Carlos?"

"I have a question," Carlos stated, gaining Ben's attention.

"Ask away, little dragon."

Carlos paused for a moment, smiling happily at being called 'little dragon'. "Who do you go to when you have a secret?" he asked cautiously, peering up at Ben. Mal snapped to attention, watching Carlos intently while fidgeting with the skirt of her tutu.

Ben tilted his head, "You talk to a friend that you know you can trust. Is there something you want to talk about?" Ben was concerned by his sudden admission of having a secret but also wildly curious as to what a four-year-old would deem important enough to keep classified.

Carlos opened his mouth to speak but hesitated, glancing at Mal. "We can trust Ben, he has good people eyes," Mal reasoned, encouraging Carlos.

Satisfied with her logic, Carlos nodded. "I wanted to say that, well, I love Jay. He's my bestest friend ever." He ended in a whisper, bashfully looking away from Mal and Ben. Ben looked at Mal, noticing her look of fear, then at Carlos, who looked ashamed.

"Carlos," Mal whispered, "You can't say that, we'll get in trouble."

"Wait, no, no one is in trouble," Ben cut in, realizing that he'd delayed responding for too long. "You can't get in trouble for loving Jay."

"Really?" Mal and Carlos chorused.

"Love is a good thing, you should never feel like you have to keep that a secret," Ben explained, reaching out to place a hand on Carlos's shoulder. "Auradon is different than the isle. I don't know how love was treated there, but here, love is encouraged. It's a beautiful thing and you're always allowed to express it, okay?"

Carlos nodded, unsure. "So you're not mad?"

"Of course not! I'm honored that you felt you could trust me with this." Ben smiled at the boy to put him at ease.

"Ben?"

Ben looked at Mal who was giving him a wide eyed expression. "Can I tell you something too?"

"You can always tell me anything."

Mal took a breath before saying, "I think I love strawberries."

Ben coughed to cover up a laugh at the unexpected admission. "That's wonderful Mal, thank you for sharing that with me."

Mal blinked once and smiled, as if freed by her confession. "Come on puppy, there's a treasure map over there!" She pointed suddenly towards the opposite corner of the room. "We have to find the treasure before the other pirates do!"

The two leapt off the bed, digging through the costumes to find what they deemed appropriate wear for their imaginary pirate ship. Ben let out a sigh and relaxed against his headboard, glad that they had trusted him, but saddened by the knowledge that even as early as age four, they'd been taught to repress feelings of love. Ben hoped that he'd said the right thing to convince them that love was a good thing.

* * *

"Hey!" Jay laughed, catching Carlos as he flung himself at Jay. "Did you have fun?"

"Yes!" Carlos nodded vigorously before giving Jay a hug. "Guess what, guess what, guess, guess!"

"I don't know. What?"

"I love you!" Carlos bubbled gleefully, "And Mal loves strawberries and it's okay to say that here!"

"W-what?" Jay stammered, caught off guard by Carlos's abrupt greeting.

Mal pattered over with Ben who explained, "Earlier this evening Mal, Carlos, and I had an important discussion about how they won't get punished for loving."

"Do you love me too?" Carlos asked, looking at Jay hopefully.

"I, well, um," Jay felt his face heat up as he flustered uncharacteristically. He internally cursed at himself to get a grip. "Yeah, I do." He gave a nervous laugh that was noticed by a smug Ben but was ignored by an ecstatic Carlos. Jay stood up, holding Carlos and reached his free hand out for Mal's. "It's time we get going. Bed time is pretty soon." Jay said hastily, ignoring Ben's snicker.

"Good night, Jay," Ben said suggestively.

"Shut up," Jay responded and walked out of the room, his heart beating faster than normal.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved.  
> ― Charles Morgan

Evie sifted through the notes that Lonnie had given her as she walked through the hallways with Mal and Carlos clutching a rope attached to her book bag. By Thursday Evie and Jay had figured out a system that seemed to be effective. They'd worked out who chaperoned which child during what class, a feat which required more trial and error than either of them had expected. After school, Lonnie and Evie would watch Mal and Carlos during Mathletes. Then Evie would meet up with Ben and Jay for dinner. After dinner, Ben would babysit to allow Jay and Evie a brief respite to keep their grades from taking a nosedive.

Despite having formed some semblance of a routine, Evie found herself exhausted at the end of the day, retiring to bed at the same time as Mal and Carlos. Children were a force to be reckoned with, and Evie wished that she could siphon off some of their energy so that she could keep up with them. She returned the notes to the folder labeled 'Carlos' and looked through the folder labeled 'Mal'. Lonnie had gone around to some of her friends and requested copies of notes for the various classes that Carlos and Mal were enrolled in.

Evie hadn't thought about their classes, she hadn't had time. But Lonnie, bless her heart, had stepped up to collect notes, assignments, and study guides for when Mal and Carlos turned back to their normal ages. Evie did not envy how much homework they'd already have to catch up on from only missing a week of class. She glanced behind her every once in a while to make sure that Mal and Carlos were still following as they walked to the locker rooms to wait for Jay and Ben. Carlos was clutching the rope with one hand and Susan with the other as he toddled along, face turned upward, absorbing everything his eyes could land on. Mal was at the end of the rope, trudging slowly to hold them up. She was pouting because Evie had reprimanded her for coloring on Carlos while Evie had her back turned. Evie had managed to wipe off most of the marker, but Carlos still had splotches of different hues on his arms and face. Mal couldn't have colored on Carlos with the nice washable markers that had been provided for her, no, she just had to find the permanent markers in someone's book bag to scribble on Carlos.

Lonnie had thought it was funny, snapping pictures and sending them to Doug, but Lonnie hadn't been the one to try and scrub the marker off of a squirming child without taking off a layer of skin. Evie was lucky that she carried a can of hairspray in her bag, using the beauty product to remove the worst of the markings.

Mal's moping made them arrive a few minutes later than normal and Ben and Jay were already in the corridor, waiting for Evie. Jay intercepted the group, greeting Mal and picking up Carlos.

"How was practice?" Evie asked, attempting to put aside her annoyed mood.

"S'fine." Jay responded, "Lots of running and stuff. What's on Carlos' face?"

Evie and Mal simultaneously huffed at his question, earning a look of puzzlement from both the male teens.

"Don't worry about it." Evie quipped, "It's already been taken care of and you'll probably see pictures later anyway, so it doesn't matter."

Sensing her mood, the boys let the subject drop. Ben picked Mal up to give the girls some separation and sat her on his shoulders, her favorite perch. "Alright, time for dinner and then afterward you two have a special meeting," Ben announced.

Evie gasped, "Oh shoot, I almost forgot about their doctor's appointment!" She coiled up the rope and tucked it in her bag, no longer needing it since both children were being carried. She stumbled, paying more attention to her bag than her placement of her feet, and her bag went flying, spilling its contents over the carpeted hallways.

"Are you alright, Evie?" Ben asked, carefully balancing Mal as he stooped down to help her collect her things.

"Yes, thank you, Ben. I'm fine, I just," She trailed off as her eyes landed on her mirror. "Jay!" She shrieked and picked up the mirror. An image was forming out of the static and she squinted her eyes to make out the form. Jay and Ben crowded around her, watching as a book formed and was tucked into a bag. The image faded back to static and Evie sighed, sitting back on her heels. "We were so close to seeing something."

"Don't beat yourself up over this Beri, it's not your fault. They must've moved out of range." Jay rested a hand on her shoulder, comforting her.

"I'm hungry," Carlos complained, bored of fidgeting with Jay's hair and unaware of what had just occurred.

"We're going," Jay plopped a kiss on Carlos's head without thinking, freezing when he realized what he did. He cleared his throat, internal crisis unknown to the others, "Let's go get dinner."

* * *

Evie and Jay did their best to get Carlos and Mal to cooperate as measurements were taken, heat beats checked, and reflexes tested. The doctor reported that both Mal and Carlos were slightly underweight and that they need to ensure that they're eating enough. Jay had known that Carlos's mom had been terrible with taking care of him, it was why Carlos's growth was stunted. But learning that Mal was also malnourished came as a surprise to Jay. He held Carlos on his lap and promised him a snack once they left the doctor's office. The first part of the appointment wasn't too bad compared to what came next. The doctor helped Mal and Carlos off the examination table and reached for his clipboard, jotting down notes. When he looked up, he began to ask them questions, many of which would've never crossed Jay's mind.

The doctor asked about the 'home environment' and whether or not they were 'curious enough' and 'do they have frequent mood swings'. Everything that Jay and Evie responded with was recorded, scratched into the papers on the clipboard. Mal and Carlos were beginning to grow restless and the doctor agreed that it was near time to wrap things up. "I just have one more question for you two." The doctor said, deep voice soothing them. "Do you have any last concerns about their behavior that we haven't covered yet? Like is there a habit that one of them does but the other doesn't?"

Jay shook his head, "Not that I've noticed."

Evie opened her mouth to speak but hesitated. "Actually," She said, "There is something."

"There is?" Jay asked.

"It's about Carlos. He's very clingy. It's not that it's a problem," She insisted, "It's just Mal doesn't need to be carried as much as Carlos and I just want to make sure that nothing's wrong."

Jay had noticed Carlos's dependent nature but hadn't thought that it was a problem. Maybe he hadn't been aware because he enjoyed Carlos needing to be carried, needing Jay's attention.

"Interesting." The doctor began, still writing on his clipboard. Jay wondered what he could've been writing this whole time. "Luckily, there is a simple explanation for this. Now most children by age four don't need to be carried very often, preferring to explore the world on their own two legs. However, you mentioned earlier that little Carlos here is a rather fearful child, no?"

"No, you're right," Evie agreed, stroking Mal's hair to calm the fidgeting girl.

"Carlos is out of the environment that he knows. While comparably, Auradon is much less toxic for him than the island, it's still very new to him. I think his clinginess might be a manifestation of his anxiety regarding the whole situation combined with his obvious trust in both of you. Despite having been turned into a four-year-old, he still seems to view you as representing somewhere safe."

Jay clutched Carlos a little tighter on his lap, feeling a pang in his heart at the doctor's words. "Oh," Evie spoke softly, voice thick with emotion.

Jay cleared his throat, and declared, "If that's everything, these little ones have a playdate with the King that they should be getting to."

"Yes, of course." The doctor acquiesced. "Remember to make sure they eat three meals plus snacks, and they need to get at least an hour of time outside a day and try to find activities that promote critical thinking skills," he rushed as they left the makeshift office that had been set up in an old classroom.

They sped through the hallways, pausing once they reached Ben's door. "Okay guys, here we are," Evie announced.

Jay smiled at Carlos, "Have fun, and don't torment Ben too much."

Carlos wrapped his arms around Jay's neck and hugged him, Susan dangling against Jay's back. "I love you 'Amana."

"Love you too, puppy."

Evie knocked on the door before turning back to them. "Don't worry, we'll be back in an hour or so."

"Can Ben tell us a bedtime story tonight?" Mal asked as they waited for Ben to answer the door.

"Maybe, sweetheart. We'll have to see." Evie affectionately patted her hair, turning back to the door as Ben appeared.

* * *

"No, the purple marker is mine, you need the green one," Mal said, passing Ben the green marker. The three of them were on the ground in a circle, drawing their own separate pictures. Carlos was drawing Susan the dragon-dog with laser eyes, Mal was drawing various shades of purple and blue, and Ben was drawing a flower. Markers—the washable ones—were scattered around the three, some sporting the wrong colored cap and some whose caps had mysteriously disappeared.

"But the stem of my flower is going to be green, I can't have green petals too," Ben protested, now holding six shades of green that Mal had handed him.

"Maybe you're not trying hard enough then," Mal retorted sassily.

Ben laughed and said, "How can I argue with that logic?"

He selected a marker and began to draw the petals, absently listening to the child-friendly playlist of music playing in the background. Carlos sang absently to the tune, as he focused on his art. Mal studied each marker carefully before selecting the next hue to add to her abstract drawing.

"Ben?" Mal asked, staring intently at a lavender shaded marker.

"Yes?"

"Are we friends when I'm older?"

"I'd like to think that we're really good friends, yes," Ben returned, turning his page as he shaded in the petals.

"Good."

"Mhm."

They worked on their drawings without comment for a few more minutes before Mal spoke again. "Ben?"

"Yes?"

"What is Carlos like when he's your age?"

Ben tapped the capped end of his marker against his chin, taking a moment to think. "Well," he said, "Carlos plays tourney with me and Jay. He's really good friends with Dude, too." Carlos was watching Ben, absorbing every word spoken. "He's also really good with computers, but nobody really knows how he got so good at it. Something that hasn't changed is that you—" Ben pointed his marker at Carlos, "—are really good at using those big brown eyes of yours to get Jay to agree with whatever you want. I don't think either of you have realized that it happens, though." Ben trailed off in a laugh, noticing Carlos look at him with the aforementioned expression.

"Does he still have freckles?" Mal inquired, seeming to be genuinely curious about the state of Carlos's spots.

"Indeed he does, in fact, he has even more." Ben bopped the tip of Carlos's nose with his marker and Carlos giggled, grabbing the marker from Ben to use on his drawing.

"Good," Mal piped, "I like them."

"Me too," Carlos agreed, drawing dots on his hand with his marker.

"Carlos!" Ben intercepted the marker, "These are for paper, not people."

"Oh, sometimes I forget. I'm sorry." Carlos pouted and Ben handed him back the marker, susceptible to the big brown eyes he'd claimed were Jay's weakness.

"What am I like?" Mal turned her paper over and continued to scribble on the back of it.

"What?"

"When I'm older," she intoned as if Ben were stupid, "What am I like when I'm old like you?"

"One thing that isn't different is your snarkiness." Mal gave him a look of confusion and Ben continued, "Never mind that. You love strawberries when you're older and you can draw these incredible pictures that you swear could be grabbed right off the page." He reached out and tugged playfully on one of her pigtails. "You wear your hair shorter too, though I love your hair any way you choose to style it."

Mal smiled at Ben and Carlos sang, "Mal has a boyfriend, Mal has a boyfriend!" Mal whipped her head around to glare at Carlos.

"NO! No, I don't! Boys are gross and I'm never ever ever getting a boyfriend!" Mal threw her marker down and crossed her arms as Carlos stuck his tongue out.

"I'm going to have a boyfriend someday because girls are ickier than boys," Carlos retorted.

"Nuh uh!"

"Uh huh!"

Mal growled, eyes flashing green, making the markers skitter around them. Carlos frowned, reaching out to grab a fleeing marker before looking back at Mal.

"No, Lilly, you're not supposed to use magic on your friends, remember?" Carlos chided her, recalling some lesson that Ben hadn't been present to witness.

"Take back what you said," Mal whined. "Boys are icky."

"Mal, Carlos is allowed to think that boys aren't gross. Besides, I'm a boy." Ben cut in, defusing the tension.

"Yeah but you're different," Mal explained. "'Cuz I like you better than other boys."

"Jay's not icky," Carlos added.

Mal scrunched her nose, thinking before saying, "No, he's icky too, but I guess everyone is allowed to choose one boy to be their not icky one."

"How flattering," Ben laughed while Carlos nodded in agreement.

"If I get a boyfriend he has to like red because that's my favorite color," Carlos stated simply, sorting through the remaining markers to find the red ones.

"Yes, but purple." Mal agreed, looking at her collection of purple markers.

Ben picked up a dark blue marker and drew a smiley face in the center of his flower. "Red and purple are quite nice colors," He commented and they all returned to their drawings. Ben drew several more smiling flowers, relieved that they'd managed to avoid a blowup. It had been a long week for all of them. Ben and Doug had attempted to get some snooping done but to no avail. No one they'd talked to so far had known anything and as they crossed off people on their suspect list, their hope fell. Tomorrow, he reminded himself, tomorrow Ben was having a sleepover with Mal and Carlos so that Evie and Jay could sneak out unhindered to meet the author of the mysterious note. It had been on Ben's mind since they had shown it to him.

Ben wished that he could go with them to the rendezvous, but he understood that he would be of more help by keeping Mal and Carlos out of trouble. Tomorrow they'd have a solid lead. Tomorrow.

* * *

Evie leaned her head on Jay's shoulder as they waited, wedged between a rather large shrub and the castle wall, the perfect vantage point for watching the North Wing entrance from outside without being seen. They still had ten minutes until the meeting time, but the moon was high in the sky and the two teens were exhausted from chasing after Mal and Carlos all week. Jay was grateful that Ben was watching them for the night because that meant that after this meeting, Evie and Jay could return to their own beds in their own rooms and maybe even sleep in past the sunrise—which for some reason Mal and Carlos had determined was the best time to start the day.

Jay folded and unfolded the note, reading over the words that he had memorized by now. He didn't know what to expect from this meeting, and the uncertainty of the situation put him on edge. He poked Evie every few minutes to make sure that she was awake. He didn't want to go into this alone. The minutes crawled by as if trudging through a thick syrup. Jay froze when he heard the old oak doors creak open. Evie lifted her head, eyes wide. They both crept around the bush, still hidden from sight of the door. Unable to see who had stepped out, Jay stood, making himself visible.

"Where's the book?" He demanded curtly.

The figure turned and spoke, "I'm really sorry. I have some bad news for you."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some points I want to make:  
> 1\. I know that Mal is a very talented artist, however not many artists, that I know of at the least, have honed their craft by age four so I think her scribbling is accurate. Also the drawing on Carlos is something I used to do to my younger brother (sorry bro)  
> 2\. I feel like since Mal has magic in general, at a young age she would have accidentally used it if it weren't for the barrier messing up her vibe, so hence the papers thrown at Lonnie and the markers skittering when she's upset.  
> 3\. Finally, thanks for the comments and kudos! :) You're the best! They really help me to stay motivated about writing, so thank you so much


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It is the task of the translator to release in his own language that pure language that is under the spell of another, to liberate the language imprisoned in a work in his re-creation of that work.
> 
> ― Walter Benjamin

"Jane?" Evie questioned, stepping beside Jay. Jane hesitated before making her way down the steps, nearing the two. "What's going on Jane?"

"I'm so, so sorry, none of this was supposed to happen," she insisted. She pulled her hands from our behind her, Mal's spell book clutched in her dainty fingers. Jay tensed to lunge but Evie placed a hand on his back to keep him grounded.

"It took me awhile to figure out how to distract Audrey so I could get it from her. She hasn't let this out of her sight since, you know," Jane gestured vaguely, "the thing happened," she finished lamely.

"Audrey did this?"

"No, well yes, I mean," Jane paused, thinking of the best way to answer Jay's question. Evie rubbed her hand in small circles on Jay's back. She needed him to stay calm. What they needed from Jane was information, and Evie knew that the more pressure they put on the nervous girl, the less they could extract from her.

"We did this." Jane finally admitted, then gulped at Jay's expression. Her wide eyes met Evie's and Evie motioned for her to continue. "Audrey wanted to do a prank so we thought that we'd make them a little bit younger but something went wrong and the magic was stronger than we'd intended and they're so little and it was only supposed to last a day or two tops! I swear, I'm so sorry!"

Jane clutched the book to her chest and took a heaving breath, on the verge of sobbing. "Jane, please, take a few breaths and calm down," Evie spoke, taking advantage of the naturally harmonious quality of her voice to soothe Jane. "Thank you for telling us, that took a lot of courage." Jay snorted and Evie swatted his back. Evie cleared her throat. "As I was saying, I know that this must have been difficult for you. We just want Mal's spell book and we can forget about all of this, alright?"

Jane nodded, "Oh yes, the book. Um," She chewed at her lip. "Something isn't right."

Jay, while not pleased with Evie's promises to ignore Jane's mistakes, seemed to finally understand why she was taking such a calm demeanor. "What do you mean?" He asked, the level of aggression in his voice diminishing significantly.

Jane opened the book to a random page and tapped her light blue fingernail on the page. "When I finally managed to get this from Audrey I tried to find the spell that we used so I could undo it but well, take a look." She passed the book over and Jay grabbed it, tugging it from her hands with more force than necessary. Evie skimmed the page, then looked at Jay in confusion.

"Runes?"

"Looks like it." He confirmed, tracing his finger over the strange characters replacing the spells. "How did this happen? Did Audrey do this?"

"Oh! Heavens no! Audrey doesn't have an ounce of magic in her. I think the book did it to itself," Jane suggested, defending her friend.

"Mal mentioned that the book had a defense mechanism but she never really elaborated," Evie offered. "This must be it. If something happens to its owner, the book makes itself unreadable. It's like how only I can use my mirror."

"Yeah," Jane interjected, awkwardly holding her arms against herself. "Well, I should probably get going so I don't get caught out after curfew. I don't think my mom would be happy." She gave a nervous laugh. "Let me know if there's anything I can help with and I'm really sorry."

Jay took a predatory step forward. "We don't need your help. In fact, it'd probably be best if you left us alone for a really long time. Understood?"

Jane squeaked and nodded vigorously before turning and running back into the school.

"Harsh." Evie commented.

"Hardly. She deserved it."

"Jay," Evie chided him, merely by saying his name.

"Why do you keep defending her? Don't you see what she's done?" Jay turned his anger on Evie, but she just raised an eyebrow at him. She'd known him for too long for his tone of voice and volume to have any effect on her.

"Audrey and Jane had Mal's spellbook with the intention of performing magic on Mal and Carlos. Mal's spellbook is no toy. I mean have you seen some of the spells? They can get pretty gruesome at times. But you know which spell they chose? A harmless de-aging spell. Doesn't that say a lot about them that they chose that spell over almost any other spell? They could've done serious harm to us, but they chose to prank us. I think that's worth taking into consideration," Evie explained, almost desperate for Jay to understand her position. Evie had always liked Jane and hated seeing her get into situations like this. She also knew that 'regular Jay' scared the living daylights out of Jane. Jane didn't need an 'angry Jay' on her tail and Evie didn't need an 'unfocused Jay' in general.

"Plus," she added, "We wouldn't have had all those really cute moments with Carlos and Mal if it weren't for them. I thought you always wanted Carlos to confess his love for you." She bit the words mischievously, taking pleasure in how quickly Jay's face flushed.

"Yes, I mean, no! I mean, well, not like that," Jay spluttered uncharacteristically, realizing his slip up. He sheepishly ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's just go to bed and get some sleep. It's been a long week." He walked up the steps towards the castle, away from Evie who smiled, knowing that she'd effectively diffused his anger for the moment. Evie knew her friends better than they were aware of, a fact of which she was very proud and that came in handy during moments like this.

"Mmm, a full night of sleep almost sounds too good to be true." Evie ducked under Jay's arm as he opened the door and they parted, heading to their own separate rooms to enjoy one night without having to care for energetic four-year-olds.

* * *

"—But s'okay cuf we stobbed hib." Carlos jabbered around a mouthful of toast, describing the epic of Susan the Dragon-Dog and how Carlos and Susan had to help Mal and Ben fight the swamp monsters and save the world. Jay had woken up and gathered Evie and Doug before going to Ben's room. To Jay's astonishment, his knock was what awoke the occupants of the room. Every morning the past week Mal and Carlos had woken them up at six, but Ben got to sleep in until eight thirty? Not cool.

Ben had called down to the kitchen to get some breakfast trays sent up for him and the kids, who munched cheerfully as Evie and Jay recalled the event of the previous night, which then led to Carlos telling his story. While Carlos had been speaking, Doug had scrutinized the runes, paging through the book with care.

"Telath!" He burst out unexpectedly, causing Mal to clank her fork loudly against her plate. "Sorry." He apologized, then explained, "Telath is the language of the Fae which uses an alphabet that appears to be a cross between the Elvish alphabet and the Phoenician alphabet that we use." At their confused looks, he elaborated. "I did a project for my history class about the linguistic oddities of different languages and luckily for us, I was assigned to research into the origin of Fae'len—that's their name for Telath, their language."

"So you can read it?" Jay asked, incredulously.

"No, of course not!" Doug waved a hand at him. "But I know where to find research on it. I might be able to translate it into our alphabet, and from there into English. Taleth is an ancient language, that even at the height of its popularity—if you will—was only spoken by the upper class citizens of Fairies. Which makes sense that Maleficent guarded her book with that language. I wonder if Mal speaks any of it?" He trailed off thoughtfully, looking at the girl who was chasing a grape around her plate, unsuccessful in her attempts to impale the fruit on the tongs of her fork. "Never mind."

"That sounds difficult," Evie pointed out, eyes watching as Mal finally managed to spear to grape and lift it to her mouth. "That sounds really, really difficult."

Doug hummed. "Not difficult as much as tedious and time consuming."

Jay felt his heart drop. "How long?" He voiced what they were all thinking.

"Unless we get lucky, long." Doug disclosed. "We don't have any idea which section of the book the spell is in, let alone which section the counter spell is in so we'll have to translate the whole thing. Not all of us are lucky enough that a magic lake washes away our enchantments." Doug shook his head wistfully at Ben.

"Magic lake? What magic lake?" Evie had spoken softly, but her tone of voice was dangerous, every word punctuated with threat. Doug paused and looked back and forth between the former villains and the king several times.

"Mal didn't tell you?" Ben let out a nervous chuckle, genuine in his question, but concerned by her reaction.

"Tell us what? Is there a magical lake somewhere that neither of you bothered to tell us about?" Evie snapped, pushing a blue curl behind her ear. Mal watched the exchange carefully, setting her fork down. The curtains rustled, despite the windows being closed and the lack of draft in the room.

"I took Mal to a lake on our first date," Ben began cautiously, gauging the reactions of those around him. "I went swimming and the lake had magical properties that washed away the love spell. I thought that she told you."

"We knew that she was going to reverse the spell after the coronation, but she never elaborated and well, things were kind of crazy," Jay spoke, feeling strange that he was for once the calmer of the two.

"Okay, pause. Why haven't we taken them to the lake yet?" Evie narrowed her eyes at Doug and Ben.

Doug raised a finger, fearing his girlfriend's wrath, but wanting to placate her. "Well, the lake washes away simple magic. Love spells aren't difficult, they're probably the most common type of enchantment. But reversing someone's age is much more complicated. I'm not surprised that Jane and Audrey were unable to achieve their desired results. This type of magic is specific and complex, as I explained to Jay and Ben earlier in the week, and so will have less ways to break the spell other than just waiting for it to wear off. I'm sorry we didn't tell you, Evie, but it didn't seem important because we knew that it wouldn't work."

Evie set her jaw, not budging in her annoyed expression. She was sleep deprived and stressed, and overall in a bad mood. This news about the lake hadn't improved anything, rather it momentarily gave her hope, only to be snatched away. Instead of responding, she plucked a strawberry from Ben's plate and nibbled at it. Ben wisely tolerated her thievery and pushed his mug of coffee towards her, sensing that she needed it more than him. Evie accepted the caffeinated peace offering and the mood of the room became less tense as she nursed the hot beverage.

"I'm not sure if this is the best time to bring this up," Ben stipulated. "But Lonnie mentioned that her parents own a beach house about an hour's drive from here and I thought that maybe we could make a weekend trip there. It could be relaxing." He pushed a napkin over to Carlos, who'd accidentally spread a glob of jam all over his elbow, before picking up the napkin himself to clean Carlos.

"Nice save," Jay poked fun at Ben. "I'm game if E is."

Ben and Jay turned to Evie, who was sipping at the coffee. She rolled her eyes and sighed, "Fine." She hid a reluctant smile behind the rim of the mug as Jay and Ben burst into cheers. Their jubilance garnered the curious attention of the younger two.

"What?" They chorused, both pestering the nearest teen in their reach for answers.

"You're going to the beach," Doug explained.

"Beach?" Mal questioned.

"You're?" Evie questioned.

Doug addressed Mal first, then Evie, "You'll find out soon, and I can't go. I want to get started on this translation project, plus I have a band festival coming up in a few weeks. If I miss the weekend practices Mrs. Suono will have my head." He drew a menacing line across his throat, then shrugged. "Sorry."

Ben clapped him on the shoulder as he stood, "Not a problem, Doug. Some other time maybe. I'll let Lonnie know that you guys agreed. Let's pack a bag and then meet back here at ten?"

It was a statement, but he phrased it as a question, hyper-concerned with ensuring that Evie's approval was met. She took another sip of her coffee and nodded. "Ten is good."

Ben smiled gappily at her, "Great! She'll be so excited."

* * *

Lonnie indeed was very excited.

She chattered about the beach house on the entire car ride over, detailing her favorite parts about the beach. Carlos listened closely, having never experienced a beach before. Jay hadn't either, but he was more reserved in showing his lack of knowledge. Despite consuming a mug of coffee, Evie had fallen asleep within ten minutes of the car pulling away from the school, resting her head on Ben's shoulder. Mal followed Evie's example and curled up in their laps and resting, more an act of rebellion against Lonnie than of actual exhaustion.

Jay enjoyed the car ride, for once just talking about normal teenage things instead of trying to find the spell book or how to care for a child. He'd forgotten how much he'd missed this type of interaction in his week of being assigned guardian to Mal and Carlos. While Lonnie told Carlos all about the beach, Jay and Ben talked about Tourney tactics, indulging in their love for the game.

At the beach house, which Jay admitted was as wonderful as Lonnie had described, they threw their bags in the two bedrooms and had a light lunch before dressing for the beach. Mal and Carlos were standing by the sliding glass door, dressed in their swimsuits, water wings, and water shoes. Their hands were pressed against the glass, leaving smudges, as they patiently waited to be released to the outdoors.

Jay walked over and opened the door, following them as they ran down the wooden steps onto the sand. Carlos stopped, excited by the feeling of the sand, but Mal was dead set on playing in the waves, which were mercifully calm today. "Ben!" Jay called, gesturing towards Mal.

"On it!" Ben jogged after her, quickly catching up.

"Hey Carlos, do you want to go in the water?" Jay cajoled as the girls walked past him, arms piled high with towels. Carlos looked up from his handful of sand, then eyed the water suspiciously.

"It's moving on its own," Carlos stated, letting the sand trickle through his fingers. Jay had seen waves on the isle but the barrier had prevented him from ever experiencing them. He could see and understand Carlos's interest paired with quiet distrust. Carlos allowed himself to be carried near the water. Jay stopped when the water lapped above his ankles.

"You ready?" Jay asked, shifting so he could lower Carlos. Mal had seemed very receptive to the water and Jay could see her jumping into the shallow waves, laughing when they knocked her back and spitting out the salty water that found its way into her mouth.

Jay almost dropped Carlos when he started to shriek. Carlos's feet had barely skimmed the water, but already he was trying to climb up Jay's arms and get away from the waves.

"Carlos, what's wrong?" Jay struggled to keep his grip on the squirming boy because he knew that dropping Carlos in the water wouldn't end well.

"No no no no no no," Carlos whimpered, "I don't like it, I wanna go back to the sand."

"Alright, calm down, we're going." Jay stepped back from the water, setting Carlos down near where Lonnie was seated.

"Is everything okay?" Lonnie asked, concerned.

"The water is bad." Carlos spoke, plopping himself down next to Lonnie.

"Oh well that's not good at all," Lonnie appeased Carlos. "Do you want to build a sand castle instead?"

"What?" Carlos and Jay echoed.

"You've never built a sand castle?" Lonnie questioned, taken aback.

"We may have lived on an island, but there weren't any beaches. It was just a cliff that dropped off into the ocean, with a barrier keeping us in," Jay explained, wiggling his toes under the sand and enjoying the strange sensation.

"I want to build a sand castle!" Carlos interjected. "Can we? Please!"

Lonnie smiled at his enthusiasm. "Of course! Jay, you have to help too. We'll make the best sand castle ever! Let me go get some shovels and buckets." She pushed herself off the ground and bounded back towards the house to retrieve the necessary tools.

* * *

Evie turned when she heard Carlos's shrill reaction, but had to stifle a giggle at what she saw. Jay struggled comically to lift Carlos away from the water while Carlos squirmed. When Jay managed to get both of them to the sand, Evie returned to watching Mal. She waded through the water that was up to the middle of her shin and stood by Ben.

"Thank you for suggesting this." She gave him a smile and adjusted her sunglasses. "I think a change of scenery will be good for me, and for Jay too."

"You should thank Lonnie for getting permission from her parents to let us use their beach house," Ben humbly deflected her praise to Lonnie.

Mal scampered over to them, stumbling with the movement of the waves. "Lookit!" She held up a murky colored seashell that she pulled from the water. "I'm gonna find all a'them. Here!" She took Ben's hand and put the shard in his palm. "Hold it for me," she commanded, pairing a demand with an irresistible smile.

Evie giggled as Ben pocketed the shell, and said, "If nothing else, Mal is having a wonderful time."

"Yes," Ben agreed. "Mal is a very explorative child."

They fell quiet again, listening to the waves lapping at the sand and the sounds of Carlos' delight at something. The sun beat down on them, warming them without being oppressive. The water helped combat the warmth by providing a cool relief on their legs.

"Will you miss it?"

Evie took her eyes off of Mal to give a quick look to Ben. "Miss what?" She asked.

Ben gestured towards Mal, then Carlos. "I know it's only been a week, but do you think you'll miss taking care of them?"

"No way." Evie answered shortly, her statement confident and concise.

"Really?"

"I won't miss the taking care of them parts, but other things, probably. The unshakable trust, the love and affection that they willingly bestow upon us. They're not as open about these things when they're older. I'll miss that," Evie elaborated. She sighed, exhaling a small breath through her nose. "Do you think they'll remember all this?"

"I don't see why not." Ben paused to accept another shell from Mal before continuing his thought. "They'll probably be embarrassed. We can't let Mal destroy the scrapbook." He wagged a finger in Mal's direction. "You know that she'll try."

"Maybe we'll have to cast a protective spell on it after Doug's translated her book," Evie joked. She stepped further into the water, using her toes to play with the sand. Evie marveled at how in control Ben always appeared. Evie felt frazzled by the whole situation but Ben approached it with an impressive calm, searching for a solution with determination.

Perhaps it was the whole King thing, giving him the ability to remain cool and collected even when his girlfriend is turned into a four-year-old. He not only helped care for Mal and Carlos, but also made sure that Evie and Jay were staying sane throughout it all. Evie was grateful for his presence and his wonderful idea of visiting the beach. Maybe she could even beg-off child watch duty to take a nap.

She startled out of her thoughts when Lonnie splashed through the water near them. "Just getting some water," Lonnie explained, holding up a green plastic bucket spotted with sand. "Ben, tonight. S'mores—yay or nay?"

"What's a s'more?" Evie wrinkled her nose, trying to imagine the unknown.

"That's definitely a yay," Ben spoke, eyes lighting up at the thought of the treat. "We'll have to have a campfire and show them how it's done."

"Obvi," Lonnie laughed, taking in Evie's muddled expression. "Anyway, gotta get back with the water before Carlos gets impatient." She leaned down and scooped up some of the ocean water before prancing back to Jay and Carlos.

"I have a feeling that this 's'more' adventure is going to have its own page in the scrapbook," Evie predicted, rather befuddled by Lonnie and Ben's exchange.

"I would be very disappointed if it didn't," Ben agreed, accepting another shell from Mal. "Oh, this one is cool," he complimented, earning a toothy smile from the small girl.

"Come find shells with me," Mal begged, pushing at both of their legs.

"Only if you show us the proper technique," Evie posed, watching as Mal launched into and explanation of her process for finding the best shells. _Yes_ , she thought to herself, _this is exactly what I needed._


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t paint dreams or nightmares, I paint my own reality.
> 
> —Frida Kahlo

 

“The first part of making a s’more is roasting the marshmallow,” Lonnie instructed Carlos and Mal in the low lighting from the campfire.  The stars twinkled down at them, winking playfully, and the night air was narrated by the steady background waves.  Other than the occasional pesky bug, the night was ideal for a campfire. “Both of you have your sticks, right?”

They nodded, turning to the teen who held their respective marshmallow stabbers while Lonnie explained the process to them.  Ben tossed a bag of marshmallows at her that she deftly caught and opened, handing both  children a marshmallow.  “Take this marshmallow and put it on the end of your stick.  You don’t want it to fall off into the fire.”

Again they nodded, though this time with the comical seriousness of a child that believes they have been assigned an important task.  Evie and Jay helped them impale the white confection on the end of the stick before giving them the handle. 

“Perfect.  Now this next part is the hardest.  Even Ben hasn’t figured out how to do this part properly.  He always burns his marshmallow,” Lonnie added tilting her marshmallow at Ben.

“Hey,”  h e laughed. “Maybe I like them burnt. That’s a thing you know.”

“Uh huh, sure,”  s he drawled, laughing.  Jay snorted and walked over to Evie, passing by Ben as he rearranged the logs in the fire.  Lonnie had tasked Ben to open up a spot of coals so Mal and Carlos could roast a marshmallow without having to deal with too many flames. “Anyway,” she continued, “Proper roasting technique is key to achieving that perfect golden brown s’more.”

She knelt down and held the end of her stick, keeping the marshmallow near the bright red coals. “Hold it like this.  You don’t want is too close to the logs or you’ll get dirt on it.”  Mal and Carlos mimicked her position and she cheered, “Good! Also make sure to turn it every once in awhile so that you get a nice even roast.”

“That is a lot to remember,” Jay commented, impaling his own marshmallow on a stick.

“Yeah, but I think with Lonnie’s help they’ll get it,” Evie responded, watching the flames lick at the charred logs.

“I wasn’t talking about them, I was talking about me,” Jay insisted, earning a laugh from Evie.

“Somehow I think you’ll be fine.” Evie patted his shoulder and moved to check on their progress.  Carlos and Mal had chosen spots on opposite sides of the fire and Evie knelt down by Carlos, glancing at Mal before giving her attention to the small boy. “Looks good, C.” She affectionately ran her fingers through his curls, an action she couldn’t get away with as much when he was older.  Evie almost fell backwards when she heard Mal’s shriek of fear.

“Mal!” Evie called out of reflex, standing up.  Lonnie was already there, before even Jay or herself could react, taking Mal’s stick complete with a blazing marshmallow and blew on it, extinguishing the small fire.  Carlos looked at Evie, concern in his eyes as he clutched at her leg.

Mal’s eyes watered, sparkling in the firelight, and Ben stooped to lift her up.  “It’s alright, love, everything’s okay.  You just burned a marshmallow, you’re fine.  You’re not in trouble.” Mal whimpered into his neck as he soothed her.  Evie met eyes with Jay and  h e moved over to kneel by Carlos while she stepped near Ben.  She rubbed Mal’s back comfortingly.

“Hey, it’s okay Mal.” Evie spoke, moving her hand to Mal’s hair. Mal turned her head to look at Evie, silent but tearful. “You know, I bet that marshmallow could still make an awesome s’more for Ben.  He does like his marshmallows burnt after all.”

“What does that say about him?” Jay sniped in the background, pretending to zip his lips shut after Evie cast him a glare. Evie heard Jay chuckle after she turned back to Mal.

“R-really?” Mal sniffed.  She hadn’t truly been in danger, but the shock of the marshmallow catching on fire combined with her hatred of failure was emotionally taxing. 

“Really,” Evie promised. “And then you can try again.”

“Okay,” Mal mumbled, still clutching onto Ben.

“Maybe later.” Evie said, stroking Mal’s hair one more time.

“Carlos! Holy smokes! I should have you roast my marshmallow too! Look at that skill!” Jay boasted to Carlos, making the boy giggle.  Jay narrated Carlos’s actions like a sports commentator, earning even more giggles and almost another charred marshmallow, saved at the last second by Lonnie.

After a little while, Mal calmed down enough to attempt another marshmallow, seeing how much joy the treat had given Carlos.  Ben stayed by her side, coaxing her through the motions and ensuring that they didn’t have another accident.  Soon enough both children were sticky but sated, the sugar high having worn off.

“Bedtime,” Evie announced, standing up from her chair.  Carlos and Mal groaned and grumbled, but held little resistance after the long eventful day.  She took their hands and led them inside, leaving the rest of the group by the fire.  She ran a bath for the two in the bathroom connected to the room Jay was sharing with Mal and Carlos.  The room had a bunkbed and a futon  that was normally used by Lonnie and her siblings when her family visited.  Evie and Lonnie were to share the master bedroom and Ben had volunteered to take the couch in the living room. 

Evie prepared Mal and Carlos for bed with haste because the sooner they were asleep, the sooner she could go to bed herself.  She tucked Mal in the top bunk and Carlos in the bottom when Ben walked in.

“I promised Mal a story a few days back,” Ben explained. “I’m here to keep my word.”

“Excellent,” Evie chirped, the yawned.  “Good night Ben,”  s he spoke and left the room, ready to experience the plush bed in the master bedroom.

* * *

 

Jay wasn’t entirely sure what was happening, but he did know that slowly but surely his blanket was disappearing.  He tugged on the fabric sluggishly, surprised when he was met with resistance. Not ready to fully wake and face the blanket thief, he groaned.

“Jay?”  At the sound of his name, Jay opened his eyes and accepted that he was indeed doomed to be awake.  The room was still dark sans the dim glow cast by the nightlight plugged into the wall and the small bit of moonlight that filtered in through the window.  Jay turned towards the sound and saw Carlos standing by the futon, gripping Jay’s blanket in an attempt to get his attention.

“Yeah?” Jay croaked, then cleared his throat.  When Carlos met Jay’s eyes, Jay realized that there were tear tracks on his cheeks.  Jay sat up and spoke softly, “What’s wrong?”

Carlos climbed onto the futon, clutching Susan. “I had a bad dream.”

Jay placed a tentative hand on Carlos’s back. “Do you want to talk about it?”  With their past, it wasn’t uncommon for them to have nightmares.  Jay knew that Carlos had nightmares when he was older, but they never really talked about them.  Some nights Jay would wake up to Carlos’s whimpering, or be woken up by Carlos because he was whimpering.  They had an understanding.  When the other had a nightmare, they would wake him up, but they would never mention it the next morning.  As their time in Auradon lengthened, the nightmares began to decrease.  Jay now realized that he hadn’t had a nightmare in weeks. With everything that had happened in the past week, he was actually surprised that Carlos hadn’t had a nightmare earlier.

Carlos nodded and leaned into Jay’s side, wedging Susan  between them. When Jay was sure that Carlos had fallen asleep again, the boy finally spoke.  “My mommy tried to take me away.” Carlos paused and sniffed, little finger clutching at Jay’s pajamas. “She put me in a cage ‘cause I was bad and then she made the mean doggies try to hurt me.”  Carlos’s voice cracked at the end and Jay hugged the boy tight.

“It didn’t happen,” Jay told him. “You’re safe here with me.  I’ll never let her take you away from me **—** us, from us,”  h e rectified quickly. 

“Promise?” Carlos’s weak voice warbled in the dark room.  

Mal rolled over in her bed and Jay waited for her to settle before whispering, “I promise.”

“Do you get bad dreams too?”

“Yeah, I do.”  Perhaps it was the darkness of night or the knowledge that Carlos was much younger, but Jay found that this admission was easy to make.  The words slid past his lips before he could even realize that he’d spoken.  “We all have something that scares us, Carlos.  We just have to remember that we can’t let scary things win.  We can’t let them take over our lives.”  Jay wasn’t normally poetic and blamed this on the stillness of the night and the sliver of moonlight shining through the window, giving the room a timeless quality. 

Carlos’s breathing had calmed and Jay didn’t see any glinting tears on his cheeks.  Jay hoped that these changes meant that he’d said something right.  Carlos looked up suddenly and asked, “Can I stay with you?”

Jay sucked in a breath.  He should tell Carlos that he needs to go back to his own bed, but when he looked at those brown eyes, pleading with him, he felt his resolve crumble. “Fine, but no hogging all the blanket.”  

Carlos nodded and laid down.  Jay laid so that they were back to back.  As he was drifting off to sleep, he felt Carlos roll over beside him and grab a handful of his shirt.  Not pulling, just holding, reminding himself that Jay was there, that Jay would keep him safe.

* * *

 

Evie shuffled around the kitchen, humming while she mixed the pancake batter, and periodically referring back to the recipe book that she’d located on one of the shelves.  She leaned against the counter and watched Jay braid Mal’s hair while Mal and Carlos chattered lively.  Ben and Lonnie were still asleep.  They hadn’t had a week of early morning wake ups to get them accustomed being up before the birds. 

While most mornings Evie grumbled, internally of course, today she didn’t mind being up early.  There was a domestic quality to the morning that she enjoyed, something that she never experienced back on the isle.  Also Jay had filled Evie in about Carlos having a nightmare and it reminded Evie how lucky they were to even be off the isle at all.  

Evie doled out portions of the batter onto the griddle, picking up the spatula when she set the mixing bowl down.  It was interesting to Evie that Carlos had a nightmare, but Mal slept peacefully, and had every night.  She wouldn’t be surprised if it had something to do with their mother’s differing parenting styles.  Maleficent expected the best **—** well the worst **—** from Mal, but she wasn’t really demanding until Mal was older.  Maleficent may have been a terrible mother, but even she understood that its difficult to demand evil from someone who can’t even tie their own shoes.  

From what Evie understood, Maleficent left Mal to do her own thing until she was old enough for the ‘evil lessons’ to start. Mal desperately wanted her mother’s approval, and followed her every lesson to the letter.  

Carlos on the other hand, experienced the same parenting his entire life.  Cruella spun tales and twisted words, keeping Carlos in the dark about the truth on many subjects.  She used fear to keep him in check, and he believed her, trusted her.  Why wouldn’t he? She was his mother, why would she lie to him?

Evie flipped the pancakes, pleased at the golden brown shade on one of them and annoyed at the slightly too brown shade on the other.  Carlos had been raised to fear everything, and so when reverted back to a child, easily fell back into his old ways.  But this time was different, Evie comforted herself.  This time, Carlos had Evie and Jay to depend on, to protect him and tell him that he didn’t need to fear.  

She pulled the plate out of the warmed oven and flipped the pancakes onto them before returning the plate and closing the oven door. 

“Mal and Carlos,” Evie called out, gathering their attention as she poured more pancake mix onto the griddle. “What do you guys want to do today?”

“I want to show puppy how to find the best sea shells because he needs to decorate his sand castle.”  Mal was quick to respond.  Mal tried to turn her head to look at Evie, but Jay gently tugged her braid, keeping her in place so he could fix a hair tie to the end without ruining the braid.

“Yes!” Carlos chirped, agreeing without adding any suggestions of his own.

“After breakfast we can go spend some time on the beach,” Evie allowed.  The morning was lazy, with no rush to complete anything.  The four were all still in their pajamas, enjoying the serenity of the morning, in comparison to the frantic discord of school mornings.  By the time Evie finished making the pancakes, Ben and Lonnie had woken up.  Lonnie was lured out of the bedroom by the tantalizing smell of food, while Ben had been woken up when Mal climbed onto the couch arm and then jumped on him, body slamming him with the mustered force of a four-year-old.  

Evie had just finished asking Jay to retrieve the swimsuits from where they were hanging when her phone went off.  She set down the sponge and dried her hands.

“I’ll finish the dishes,” Ben offered as Evie dug through her purse for her phone.

“You’re the best,” Evie chirped, pulling out the phone and answering the call.

“Good morning, lovebug, how’s the beach?” Her boyfriend’s voice sang in her ear.

“Good morning.  The beach is wonderful, it’s really a shame you couldn’t join us.” She responded, patting Mal’s head as she walked by on her way to the room she and Lonnie were sharing.

“Yes, but I do have good news,” Doug spoke cheerily.

“Ooh!” Evie cooed, “I love good news! What is it?”

“Well,” Doug started. “During band practice Mrs. Suono started playing around with different arrangements and moved us around a lot so I got to talk to people I didn’t even know were in the band.  One kid I talked to is in the AV club and when I mentioned that I had this big translation project to tackle, he brought up a really interesting idea.”

“I’m listening,” Evie encouraged him.  Evie could almost feel his excitement coming in waves through the phone. “What’s his idea?”

“He mentioned the possibility of creating an algorithm to help with the translating.” Evie could imagine that as he spoke he was beaming. Doug continued, “He thinks that he could help me to write a program that takes the Taleth alphabet and translates it to Phoenician if we set up  an ‘if, then’ statement that says ‘if this specific rune, then type the equivalent’ in a document. ”

“That’s genius!” Evie exclaimed, understanding his excitement. “I mean we’ll have to scan the pages and figure out all the runes, but this will make it go by much quicker.”

“I know, during practice we started planning out how we would tackle the coding and I don’t think it should be too difficult, especially with both of us on the case,” Doug bragged, proud but not obnoxiously so.  “My plan is to translate the first page by hand so we know what it says and we can use that page as a reference for testing the program to see if it works or work out any bugs.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Evie asked, aware that she had an inflexible schedule, but desiring to help Doug in some way.

Doug hummed thoughtfully, “Maybe.  I don’t know yet.  Kevin, the guy from band, and I are meeting this afternoon to start on the program. I had planned on getting some books from the library and then manually translating some stuff to get something for reference before we meet.  Wait!” Doug cut himself off, then let out a burble of a laugh as he came to a realization.  “There’s something you could do that would be really helpful, though I guess you can’t do it at the beach, but you know, eventually when you get back--”

“Sweetheart, you’re babbling.” Evie interrupted him gently.     

“Right. Anyway, what I meant is I need you to talk to Jane,”  h e clarified.

“Why?” There was no malice in her question, just curiosity.  She hoped that Doug had a good reason because Jay would not be happy with Evie talking with Jane.  Jay was fiercely protective of their group, and Jane had been labeled as a threat in his mind, something that Evie thought rather ironic given Jane’s non-threatening qualities.

“Jane and Audrey did this.  While it may have been Audrey’s idea, Jane is the one who can do magic.  That means she read the spell.  If she can remember any phrase from it, we can narrow down our search to passages that include those words.  Obviously we’d have to translate it into Taleth and then search, but still.  I think if we could get something, anything, useful from her it could help speed things up.  If anyone could get her to talk, it would be you.”

“If it will help Mal and Carlos, I’ll talk to her.” Evie agreed.

“You’re the best,” Doug sighed into the phone, relieved that she’d agreed. Evie smiled at his compliment.  “With the program, I’m hoping that we can cut an ordeal that would’ve taken months down to a few weeks.”

Evie felt her stomach drop when he said months, reminding herself that it would be reduced significantly.  She swallowed thickly and said, “Anything is better than nothing.” 

“True that.  Alright, lovebug, I need to get to the library and check out some texts and you need to enjoy your day at the beach.  Talk to you later?”

“Yes, of course. Talk to you later.” They said their goodbyes and Evie hung up the phone.  She quickly became lost in her thoughts as she thought about how to tell the others the good news but maybe keep Jane’s name out of it.  “Oof!” Evie exhaled her breath as Mal jumped on her with enough force to knock her back on the bed.

“Come on, Evie! Jay says we can’t go outside until you’re with us!” Mal moved to the side and bounced on the bed, excitement visible.

Evie laughed after sucking air back into her lungs. “I’m coming,”  s he promised. “Be patient.  Go wait in the living room so I can change.”

“Okay, but hurry please!” Mal insisted before rushing out of the room.  Evie moved towards the bathroom where her suit had been left to dry.  She rushed to change, eager to get outside, to talk to Jay and to enjoy the beach before they had to return to school.

She walked outside of the room and was greeted by Mal who took Evie’s hand and pulled her towards the sliding glass door.  “Alright, let’s go outside,” Evie laughed at Mal’s eagerness that had an intensity similar to Evie’s.  As Mal dragged Evie towards the beach, Evie caught Jay’s eye and gave him a look that through years of experience Jay knew meant they had to talk.  She followed this look with a wide smile, full of teeth, laughing with Mal as they stepped into the warm sand. 

  
  
  



	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Loving someone is giving them the power to break your heart, but trusting them not to."
> 
> ― Julianne Moore

Evie padded through the carpeted hallways of Auradon, heading towards Ben's room to pick up Mal and Carlos. Over two weeks had passed since their trip to the beach. The two weeks had been filled with giggles and pictures and tears and memories that Evie knew she would cherish. Doug and his new friend, Kevin, had been working diligently on the program, enjoying the unique challenge it provided. If you asked Evie, she was pretty sure that they were just trying to show off their programing skills to each other.

Evie wished that she could help with the programing, but computers had never been her thing. Give her a chemistry, physics, or math problem and she'd destroy it, but she just hadn't found the time to learn the intricacies of programming and the subsequent languages that went with it. She loved listening to Kevin and Doug ramble about it, picking up a few stray facts and slowly piecing together a better understanding of their project.

In those two and a half weeks, Evie was supposed to have talked with Jane, however hadn't and her hesitancy was confusing to her. Evie was confident that her reservations weren't from lingering annoyance at their prank, so she ruled that out completely. Perhaps Evie was nervous because talking to Jane meant change. Evie had only just adjusted to this new reality, and soon it would be shattered and she'd have to figure everything out again.

Evie just wanted a nice stable life, but she knew that her background would guarantee her anything but that. Mostly Evie was just confused about the whole thing so she tried not to think about it very often. Sometimes though, in the quiet hallways in the evening, those type of thoughts snuck up on her and demanded her attention.

Before she had to give real attention to her ponderings, she arrived at Ben's dorm and knocked on the door before entering. Ben looked up at her from where he was relaxed on his bed, paused in the middle of turning the page of his book. Mal was curled up on his lap, sucking on her thumb while she peacefully slumbered. Carlos was flipping through a children's book, spending enough time on each page that it was possible that he was actually reading the words instead of just absorbing the images.

Ben smiled, bookmarked his page, and set his book down on the bedside table. He shifted Mal gently so he could pick her up and she grumbled softly in her sleep. The look of fondness that Ben cast upon her tugged at Evie's emotions. It was the same look she gave Doug when he was rambling about something that excited him. It was the same look of absolute adoration that Jay gave Carlos when he thought no one was looking. In its purest form, it was love so palpable that Evie swore she could feel it from across the room.

Carlos hopped off the bed, book in one hand and Susan in the other, breaking the spell. Evie accepted Mal from Ben and locked eyes with the king for a brief moment before bidding him good night and ensuring that Carlos followed her down the hallways. Evie knew that she couldn't put off her conversation with Jane much longer. She knew she was confused by the situation, but she couldn't imagine how much more difficult these past few weeks had been for Ben as he helped take care of his girlfriend who didn't know him like she did as her older self.

When she arrived back at their room, she handed a mostly asleep Mal off to Jay to tuck into bed while she ushered Carlos into the bathroom to brush his teeth. She heard Jay speaking in the other room, probably urging Mal to go back to sleep, though his voice was muffled enough that Evie couldn't really tell.

* * *

"Jay?"

Jay pulled the covers up to Mal's shoulders, an action that he'd never expect getting used to in their time at Auradon. "What's up, buttercup?" He popped, brushing a strand of hair from her forehead.

"I need your help," she murmured, groggily enough that Jay wasn't sure if she was awake of talking in her sleep.

"With what?"

"You know how you keep me and puppy and Evie safe?" Mal asked, yawning near the end and blinking heavily, fighting against gravity to keep her eyes open.

"Mhmm," Jay was entertaining her, debating on whether she was being serious or trying to trick him into letting her stay awake longer.

"Can you do that for Ben too?"

Jay paused in his motions, realizing that she was probably serious. "Does Ben need protecting?"

"No," Mal shook her head sluggishly but earnestly. "I'm just too little to keep him safe and I don't want anything to happen to him ever."

Jay nodded once, "I'll keep an eye out for him then."

"He makes me feel happier than strawberries do. When I'm older again I'm gonna tell him that." She yawned again, this time letting her eyes flutter shut and sinking back into her peaceful sleep.

Jay felt a smile threatening to quirk on his face. "Don't worry, I'll keep him safe for you, little grape."

* * *

Evie intertwined her fingers with Doug's, smiling at him as they walked along the grounds. They'd finished eating lunch early and Doug had asked if she'd wanted to go for a stroll. Jay waved her off, telling her that she needed some 'boy-toy time' at which Evie had raised an eyebrow and Doug had blushed furiously.

Currently he was recounting a childhood story where he'd gotten trapped in the mines his father and uncles worked in. "I thought that I was a goner, even though I was like ten feet from the entrance, but in my defense it was dark and I was young," He broke off to laugh at the memory and Evie giggled with him.

She paused when she saw Jane and Audrey sitting at a picnic table across the lawn. Doug turned when he felt resistance on his arm, realizing that Evie wasn't keeping pace. "What's up?" He asked her, tucking a blue curl behind her ear.

"Jane's over there." She stated, the sighed. "I really should talk to her. I've been putting it off for too long."

"You know, I could talk to her if you really don't want to," Doug offered.

"No, I'll do it. I did volunteer after all. You don't mind if I cut our walk a little short do you?" Evie asked him, peering up through her lashes.

Doug leaned down and gave her a brief but tender kiss, "As long as you show up this afternoon so Kevin and I can show off our program, then it's okay."

Evie's lips curled into a wide smile, "I'm so lucky to have you."

"Yes, yes you are." Doug gave her another peck before disentangling their fingers and saying, "Go talk to her. You can do it."

Evie nodded and waved behind her as she strode across the grass towards the two girls. When she approached she noticed that something wasn't right. Audrey's shoulders were curved inward and her face was buried in her hands, mumbling something to Jane. Jane had an arm around Audrey, holding the taller girl.

"Is everything alright?" Evie asked, unsure if she should interject herself into the situation.

Audrey snapped her head up and gave Evie a look so fierce that if it weren't for the puffiness of her eyes, she never would've suspected that Audrey was upset.

"It's none of your business," Audrey bit, the sniffed.

Evie took another step forward. "Chad isn't worth your tears." Evie guessed at what was bothering Audrey, and by how the brunette's eyes widened, Evie must have gotten something right. Evie had accidentally overheard an argument between Audrey and Chad a few days ago, one that didn't sound easy to recover from.

Audrey flicked her eyes away from Evie, electing not to respond but still confirming Evie's suspicion. Jane was the one who broke the silence first. "Why'd you come over here?"

Evie fiddled with the straps of her purse and answered, "I needed to talk to you for a moment, Jane."

"I can go." Audrey spoke softly, her voice more broken than Evie expected. Jane made to protest but Audrey insisted, "It's alright. I'll text you, Jane." Audrey met Evie's eyes again. "And thanks Evie. You're probably right. Chad's a jerk." She gave a watery laugh and stood up to return to the castle.

Evie sat down next to Jane, choosing the seat that Audrey had just vacated. Jane sighed, watching Audrey's figure grow smaller as she walked further away.

"Jane, I need your help with something," Evie started. "Do you remember any of the words used in the spell or potion? Anything you can recall would be really helpful."

Jane remained quiet, eyes trained on the castle and Evie wasn't sure if Jane had even heard her request. She patiently waited for a few minutes, before sighing and giving up. Just as Evie had taken a few steps back towards the school, Jane spoke, her words barely reaching Evie's ears.

"Retro annis semper."

"What?" Evie turned back to Jane.

"Retro annis semper. That was what the potion was called that I used. The spell and instructions were all under that heading," Jane clarified, refusing to look at Evie. "The name stuck out to me because it was Latin when the rest of the book was in English."

Evie nodded, thanking Jane and leaving. There wasn't much more Jane could help with, or at least would want to help with so Evie accepted her small victory and headed back indoors. She pulled out her phone and sent a quick text to Doug with the words and felt as if a heavy load that she had realized she'd been carrying was lifted.

* * *

Doug leaned back in his computer chair, allowing his momentum to cause the chair to swivel and pulling his legs close to control the motion. When the chair stopped moving he had a nice view of his bed where Evie and Mal were reclined, Evie working on homework and Mal working on a word search. Doug removed his headphones and Kevin did likewise from beside him. They'd been working on the program since practice let out and Doug wanted to let his eyes rest for a few moments. Staring at his screen for too long always made his eyes dry and uncomfortable.

Evie looked up and met Doug's eyes, giving him the smile that made Doug feel as if butterflies had taken over his body, not just his stomach. She returned to her homework and Doug sighed softly, letting his eyes take in her beauty, take in how much he was absolutely head over heels for her.

"Hey, lover boy," Kevin tossed a sock at Doug to get his attention. Doug brushed the sock off his chair and told himself not to think about the origins of the dirty sock. "It's buggin' again. It doesn't like the newest grammar rule we added."

"Ugh."

"Same thought."

The program had turned out to be more of a beast than the two boys had predicted. Translating the runes wouldn't have been difficult if all the program required were simple 'if-then' statements, equating a rune to a letter. However, translating alphabets were never that simple and they had discovered in their research that in Taleth, when certain runes were next to each other, the made a new rune which translated to something completely different than either of the two original rules.

And that wasn't even taking into account that the runes took on another shape when punctuation was added into the mix. Doug and Kevin had photocopied pages from Mal's book, blown up the images of individual runes, before attempting to coax the program to understand what the rune meant.

Doug was glad now that they had given the others a definitive timeline because they didn't pester him so long as he gave them periodic updates on their progress. Also because he'd originally thought that the program would take a week tops, but then he remembered that grammar existed and here they were three weeks later.

Doug scanned his eyes over the coding, trying to figure out what miniscule error was the culprit causing the program to freak out. After both Kevin and Doug scrutinized the section that wasn't working, they discovered that they'd forgotten to end one of the statements with a semicolon. Kevin groaned aloud at their basic coding mistake and Doug found he shared the sentiment.

"Everything okay over there?" Evie's melodic voice floated across the room.

"We forgot a semicolon," Kevin despaired and Doug gestured vaguely, attempted to show that what Kevin said was true.

"Ouch that's rough," Evie laughed, but not cruelly. She knew enough about programing now to understand why they were reacting in such fashion. She'd slowly been picking up a better understanding of what Kevin and Doug were trying to do. Doug admired her desire to learn. He'd decided that her quest for knowledge was one of the traits that made his list of favorite things about Evie. She acknowledged when she didn't know things, but always asked questions and listened closely so that she could learn.

Doug even found himself asking Evie for help when he got stuck on a homework problem because Evie didn't just want to know things, she wanted to understand completely and Doug knew that her explanations were more beneficial for his own understanding than any given by his teachers. And the occasional kisses for encouragement didn't hurt either.

"Do you want some good news?"

Doug blinked, returning from his musings to the real world, and gave Evie a tired smile. "I think we could use some good news."

Kevin grunted in agreement, and when Doug looked over at him, he had to stifle a laugh. Sometime while Doug was wrapped up in his thoughts, Kevin had slid out of his chair and was lying face down on the floor, the literal image of despondence.

"Well, there's two parts. The first one is from Lonnie," Evie scrolled through her phone, pulling up the text conversation. "She and Carlos made cookies and she said they made too many so she's bringing us some and will be here once they're done cleaning up."

Doug heard a muffled 'Hallelujah' from Kevin and asked, "What's the second part?"

"Jay and Ben are in the library translating the title Jane gave us into Taleth. They translated it into English, well sort of. They're mostly sure that it means something like 'reverse the years, but not forever' or maybe 'not always' or something. But! The good news is, they spent so long in the languages aisle that the librarian came to check and see if they were okay." Evie paused to giggle at the image of the librarian checking on Jay and Ben in the library. "It turns out that she's a linguist and speaks five different languages. None of them are Taleth, but she's helping them figure out how to make the conversions."

"Jay texted you all that?" Doug asked, surprised at the information overload.

Evie rolled onto her stomach, kicking her feet lazily. "Not at once. Jay's been giving me a running commentary on their library adventure and I figured I should share the news so far with you guys."

Doug felt a small smile crawl onto his face. Her news didn't change his exhaustion levels, but he felt renewed somehow, almost hopeful. Jay and Ben were working too, Doug knew he couldn't let the program best him yet.

"How's the word search going, Mal?" Doug asked, remembering the small girl who'd been working diligently as well, though for a different purpose.

"I'm winning," She responded simply and smugly, pencil scratching against the paper as she found another word. After pausing for another beat, she asked, "What's a Kepler?"

Evie sat up, excited because she knew the answer to the question, a fact that Doug found very attractive. The word searches he'd printed out for Mal were themed around physics. Doug had been tickled by the idea of them when he stumbled across them online and was also as delighted as Evie that Mal was asking questions.

"Johannes Kepler is a famous physicist," Evie explained. "Kepler figured out that the planets don't move in circles but in ellipses around the sun. He also figured out that they move at different velocities and the magnitude of their velocity is dependent on their position relative to the sun."

"Oh," Mal scrunched her nose. She looked like she was about to give up on understanding Evie's answer and return to her word search when she suddenly asked, "What's a velocity?"

Evie chattered away and Doug watched as she attempted to explain the fundamentals of kinematic physics to a four-year-old. Doug shifted his eyes from his girlfriend to his friend who'd recently taken up resident on Doug's floor. Doug stretched out his leg and poked Kevin square in the shoulder blades.

"Come on," Doug encouraged Kevin with his words and his socked foot. "Let's get the computer to understand what happens when the Othila rune is followed by a Jera and then we can call it a night, yeah?"

A knock sounded on the door and Kevin sprung up. "If that's the angel with cookies, then it's a plan Doug-man."

Doug and Evie laughed as Kevin answered the door and embraced Lonnie who was in turn very surprised. Lonnie let Kevin remove the tray of cookies from her grasp and closed the door after making sure that Carlos was inside the room. Lonnie flopped on the bed next to Evie, almost landing on top of her.

"Hey there," Lonnie wiggled her eyebrows and both girls giggled. "We have plans this Friday."

"We do?" Evie arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "And they are?"

"You and me and Jane and Audrey are having a girls night. There's no backing out. I'd invite Mal if she weren't four." Lonnie shrugged.

Evie held out her hand, "Wait. Why? We're supposed to be mad at them. Well not mad anymore, but we're not on good terms with them yet."

"Okay, this is true. But Evie, this is important. Chad dumped Audrey for another girl. This is the second boyfriend that's done that to her within a year. She needs a girl intervention where we do what we want and not a single boy is mentioned for at least twelve hours. We're about the pass the Bechdel test so hard, girl." Lonnie explained, tapping her finger on Mal's word search to point out a word that she found. Mal circled the word, nodding her thanks.

"And Jane and Audrey will be okay with _me_ being there?"

"Jane requested that you show up actually."

"What?"

Lonnie shrugged and pursed her lips, "Idk Evie, but it's happening. We're going to eat pizza and watch Netflix and play board games, mmm and eat pizza."

Carlos had grown bored of the boys and was climbing onto the bed to join the girls. "Hiya!" He greeted Evie and Mal.

"Hey there sweetheart," Evie ruffled his hair. "How was baking with Lonnie?"

"It was great!" Carlos burbled, sitting next to Mal and playing with her hair, a habit he'd recently developed after watching Jay braid her purple locks some mornings. "I got to pour in all the stuff and help mix it too! We made some of them look like hearts! We gave those to Jay and Ben before we got here though." Carlos nodded to himself, pleased. He looked down at Mal's word search. "What's a Kepler?" He asked and Evie let out a laugh as Mal started to explain to him before anyone else could.

The next day, as Lonnie promised, Evie was dragged to Lonnie's room where Jane and Audrey were already waiting in their pajamas, perusing movies on Netflix.

"Hey girls!" Lonnie greeted them. "Did you find a movie yet?"

Evie settled herself on the floor next to Audrey and was delightfully surprised that the atmosphere was relaxed and comfortable. Jane was filling Lonnie in on what movies she and Audrey had ruled out already.

"Evie," Audrey spoke, turning towards her. "Thanks for coming."

Evie shrugged, "It wasn't difficult. All I had to do was show up."

"Yeah, but you're one of the few girls who can relate to, you know," She gestured vaguely and Evie knew she meant Chad.

"Don't worry about it." Evie offered her a gentle smile, then joined in with Lonnie and Jane. "I think we should watch whatever while we wait for pizza to arrive and then eat it. Then I think we should bring out Ticket to Ride."

"What's that?" Audrey scrunched her perfect eyebrows together.

"Only the best train themed board game ever," Lonnie drawled, digging under her bed for a moment and holding up the box. "I just got the Europe version with train stations. I'm so excited! You'll love it Audrey, you too Jane. It's easy to learn—oh!" Lonnie broke herself off and grabbed her cell phone. "Let me order some pizza first though."

Evie clapped her hands together in excitement as Jane settled on a documentary about the world's most unnecessary animals. "Oh that sounds really fascinating," Evie said, applauding Jane's choice. Jane, in return, offered Evie a genuine smile.

Evie had a lot of realizations that night. As they happily ate the cheesy pizza and commented on the documentary, Evie realized that she was having a lot of fun. She also realized that she was comfortable with Jane and Audrey and she was grateful that Lonnie had forced her to go. She also realized that this documentary was probably the coolest thing ever and she was going to have to watch more on her own time.

However, just because she was on friendly terms with Jane and Audrey now didn't mean that she could let them beat her at Ticket to Ride. No way.

* * *

Ben couldn't stop laughing. He fell onto Jay's bed and clutched his sides as he wheezed, desperate to refill his lungs with air. Evie giggled madly. Every time she thought that she'd calmed down, the giggles came back.

"I c-can't believe that sh-she—ha!" Ben gasped, attempting to communicate. "Oh my god." He took a deep breath, tears of mirth streaming down his face. Evie had just shown him the costumes that his mother had included in the box of clothes given to them over two months ago.

Evie nodded, "Uh huh!" She giggled again and then said, "We need to get pictures."

"Yes." Ben agreed. His eyes roamed over the Dalmatian onesie and the pink fairy wings. "It's so funny, it's almost rude." He laid a hand on his stomach, sore from how much laughing he'd just done.

"I've been trying to convince Jay to let me put them in them, but he's a grump," Evie said, admiring the glitter on the dress paired with the wings.

"Maybe with two of us we can convince him, yeah?" Ben suggested, wiggling his eyebrows comically.

"When they're back from the playground, we'll pounce," Evie said and put her hand out. "Team Scrapbook on three?"

Ben snorted at her mimicry of the tourney team's cheer and the fit of laughter started all over again. Ben stretched, feeling the soreness in his stomach muscles, finally calming down as Evie's phone started to ring.

"Oh, it's Doug!" Evie smiled at the screen. "I'm putting it on speaker phone, kay?"

Ben nodded and Evie clicked the appropriate buttons.

"WE DID IT!" A triumphant chorus of Doug and Kevin's voices blared from her phone. Evie was glad that she had put it on speaker phone instead of holding it to her ear.

"Did what?" Ben asked, meeting Evie's eyes hopefully.

"We know the spell!" and "We found it!" was intermingled with "Our program worked!" and "We're geniuses!"

Evie sucked in a breath, shocked and Ben covered his mouth with his hand as if afraid of his own response. It was official. Depending on the counter spell, Mal and Carlos could be returned to their own ages maybe even as soon as by the end of the week.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.
> 
> —Lao Tzu

The vials clanked obnoxiously as Evie fidgeted with the glassware and watching the pale liquid slosh around inside. Evie had skipped Mathletes to spend the afternoon completing the potion to her perfect standards. Evie rarely came across a need to use her magic but when Evie did choose to use her gifts, she allowed no room for error. Every ingredient was meticulously prepared and carefully measured before being combined together in the proper order.

After she finished the potion, she'd bottled it and set it aside to cool, distracting herself by cleaning up the mess she'd made on her desk from the makeshift potions kit that she and Doug had scraped together after raiding the chemistry classrooms. Now it was evening and Evie laid on her bed staring at the potion in the vials. She was supposed to text Jay so he could drop off Mal and pick up Carlos's potion. She and Jay had agreed that they wanted to do this alone, though neither could quite explain why. Ben wasn't very pleased but respected her request anyway.

She picked her phone up for the tenth time in the past few minutes and typed in her passcode. She'd already typed out the message she needed to send and her finger hovered over the screen before she finally pressed send. Her phone buzzed moments later with a reply from Jay telling her that he was heading over. It wasn't long before Jay knocked and entered the room with Mal and Carlos.

"Hey," Jay spoke, eyeing the vials in her hand. Carlos and Mal climbed onto the bed next to Evie.

"Hey," Evie responded, petting Carlos's curls as he settled into her side. "Let's do this." Jay nodded and Evie turned to Carlos and Mal. "Hey guys, Jay and I have some medicine that we need you to take."

Mal wrinkled her nose in disgust and Jay spoke up, saying, "It's really important that you take this Mal. It'll make you big again."

Carlos looked up at Jay fearfully, "You don't want us little anymore?"

"No!" Evie protested, "That's not what we meant at all. We love you little, but you're supposed to be bigger. You're still going to be you, just a little older." Evie met Jay's eyes, desperate to comfort the two.

Jay opened his mouth to speak but Mal jumped over Evie's lap and grabbed a vial, uncorking it and downing the contents before Evie or Jay could react.

"Mal!" Evie exclaimed, staring at the small girl. Mal shrugged and handed Evie the empty vial.

"Tastes like strawberries," Mal slurred, eyelids drooping. She slumped over on the bed, asleep. Carlos looked from Mal to Evie in horror.

"I'm scared," he whispered, clutching Susan in front of him like a shield.

"I know, C" Jay spoke. "We're sorry, but you have to. Please."

Carlos nodded reluctantly and Evie handed him the second vial after removing the cork. "Please drink it," she urged.

"Okay, Evie." Carlos scrunched his eyes shut and swallowed the pink liquid. When he opened his eyes, they were widened with disbelief. "Mal was right," he managed to say before the potion took effect and he fell asleep, leaning on Evie.

"That was harder than I expected," Jay commented. They both knew he wasn't talking about the physical action of convincing them to drink the potion but rather was referencing the emotional toll of the last few minutes that was already beginning to take effect on the two. "I guess Carlos and I should get going." Evie nodded and Jay picked up the sleeping Carlos. "See you tomorrow?"

Evie paused from where she was tucking Mal into her bed. "Yes. Text me when you guys are awake."

"Will do," Jay half-heartedly saluted her and closed the door behind him. Evie flopped back on her bed, relishing in the comfort of her own bedspread. She and Jay had agreed that they would separate into their own rooms for the night, but Evie hadn't realized how strange it would feel to be back in her room with only Mal. Now it was a waiting game. The potion would work similarly to the initial spell, reverting them back to their older selves at some time during the night. Evie settled into her bed for a restless night of sleep, nervous for what the morning would bring.

* * *

When Jay woke up he found that he was very comfortable. There was something weighing down on his arm that once moved, Jay was sure would prove to be all pins and needles. Also Jay was very warm, almost on the verge of being too warm, but for now he felt content. Jay made to roll over but discovered a body on top of him, keeping him in place.

He sucked in a breath and opened his eyes. It was Carlos—sixteen-year-old Carlos—sprawled over Jay with Susan abandoned somewhere on the bedspread. Out of shock, or perhaps realization, Jay yelled and threw himself back. He fell out of the bed with a thump, legs tangled in the sheets. Carlos was tugged along with the movement and was jolted awake as he landed in a heap next to Jay.

"What the heck?" Carlos rubbed his head where he fell and gave Jay an annoyed look. "What was that about? You weren't dreaming about Tourney again were you?"

Jay just stared.

Carlos reached out and playfully pushed at Jay's arm, "Come on man, what's up?"

It was all so normal. Carlos was acting as if he hadn't just woken up after being curled up with Jay all night. He was acting as if he hadn't spent the last five weeks as a four-year-old. Jay's head was spinning and he felt like no matter how many breaths he took, his lungs couldn't get enough air. He sucked in gulps of air and scrambled to his feet. Carlos slowly stood, kicking the blankets from his legs and haphazardly tossing them back onto Jay's bed, laughing when he encountered Susan who he tossed over to his own bed.

"C-carlos?" Jay hated that his voice cracked but everything felt wrong because it was so normal—and he hated that he liked that it felt so normal.

Carlos turned to Jay, concern written on his face. "Hey, are you okay? You didn't have a nightmare did you?"

"No, I didn't—I mean, do you—" Jay stammered and then forced himself to pause and collect his thought before saying, "You can't do that, you're not four anymore."

Carlos frowned and Jay instantly regretted his words. "I don't understand."

"The sharing a bed thing, it's not—we shouldn't," Jay couldn't seem to formulate a coherent sentence. He knew that waking up to an older Carlos would be a shock, he'd predicted that much. But waking up to an older Carlos who was using you as a pillow was a very different story. Carlos using Jay as a pillow was one thing when he was four, but as a teenager, it was very different.

"Jay," Carlos said, after making a noise of protest. "You're my best friend. I don't see why sharing a bed is a problem. I mean I love—"

Jay made a strangled noise, cutting Carlos off. "Wait!" He looked around the room frantically for something to justify his interruption. "Lonnie has organized the collection of your homework and notes for classes. It's been awhile so there's a lot you need to catch up on."

Carlos took a step back, soaking in Jay's cop out excuse. "I see." He worried at his lip with his teeth as his brown eyes gazed at Jay, no attempt to hide what he was feeling. His trust in letting Jay see his emotions made Jay feel even worse and he wished he could hit rewind and take back everything he'd just said. Carlos finally released his lip to say, "I should get started on that then." Carlos shuffled around the room, changing out of his pajamas and frowning when he found one of his dresser drawers filled with only children's clothing. Jay perched himself on his bed and remained there until Carlos finished his morning routine, slung his book bag over his shoulder, and left the room, shutting the door with a soft click.

Jay sighed and fell back onto his bed, pulling out his phone to text Evie.

_Wake up was bad._

* * *

Evie woke up to the sun filtering through their flower-patterned curtains. She sat up and rubbed her eyes. Hadn't she closed the curtains the night before? When she removed her hands from her eyes to stretch she saw Mal looking out of the window, lost in thought. Evie pushed her covers back and padded across the soft carpet until she stood next to her friend, now reverted to the correct age.

"Mal?" Evie prodded, pulling Mal from her musings.

Mal glanced over briefly before returning her focus out the window. "I remember everything," she whispered. Her face was a blank mask, but her words betrayed her vulnerability.

"Everything?"

Mal nodded once then said, "Well mostly. It's as if I woke up one day and suddenly had these new memories from my childhood that don't seem to fit in with the rest. I remember it like it happened twelve years ago, but God, Evie, I remember." She exhaled a shaky breath, finally meeting Evie's worried stare. Evie looked into Mal's green eyes, fraught with insecurities and worries.

"There's nothing to fear," Evie mollified. "Nothing that happened was your fault. No one is holding this against you."

Mal let out a single bitter laugh, "Don't lie to me E, we're past that. Everyone is going to remember what I did, probably better than I do. I'm so embarrassed. I mean, for evil's sake, I colored on Carlos! I made Ben dress up in a tutu and tiara! And there's so much worse, I don't even know where to begin."

"Mal, you were four. They'd have to be stupid to try to seriously make fun of you for any of that. Jay and I don't care, what's more important to us is that you're our friends and we love you. We took care of you because we care. We all did what we did because we care so much about you, Mal, you have to know that." Evie said, reaching out and giving Mal's hand a solitary squeeze. Mal looked away, overcome with emotions that she wasn't used to feeling, let alone displaying.

"Yeah, whatever," she said shortly.

When Evie and Jay had insisted on being alone for the transformation back to their older selves, Ben had repeatedly asked to be able to see Mal first thing the next morning. Evie knew he was concerned and so had told him that she'd make Mal aware of his desire to visit.

"Ben wants to see you," Evie suggested.

Mal sucked in a startled breath and snapped her head toward Evie. "No."

"But he's really—"

"I said no and that's final, Evie," Mal commanded. Her eyes flashed green and the curtains flapped wildly around them before settling down. Mal looked at her hands and then at Evie, surprised. "I'm sorry," She choked out, "I haven't done accidental magic since—" She let out a strangled noise, "I need to go for a walk. Don't follow me."

Mal bolted out of the room, slamming the door behind her and Evie remained where she stood, watching Mal leave. She knew what Mal was going to say before she cut herself off. Mal was going to say that she hadn't done accidental magic since she was a child.

Evie jerked the curtains shut, suddenly annoyed by the sun's audacity to shine in her eyes. Her phone chimed from across the room and she trudged over to check her messages.

_Wake up was bad._

It was from Jay. Evie unlocked her phone and typed out a quick response.

**Mal is MIA. Come over asap so we can regroup. :/**

_Be there in a few._

* * *

Evie sat crossed legged across from Jay with her hands folded in her lap. "Tell me exactly what happened between you two," she demanded.

Jay ran his fingers through his hair and pursed his lips. "Well, we woke up," he began.

"Yes obviously," Evie stated dryly, "Unless this is some sort of elaborate dream sequence, we are indeed awake."

Jay curled his lip at her wry humor and she giggled once at his expression. He continued, "You know how Carlos liked to cuddle when he was younger?" Evie nodded. "I woke up with him laying on top of me."

Evie gasped and her hands fluttered up to her face. "What happened?"

Jay shrugged, then said, "I freaked out a bit. He just kept acting like everything was okay! What was I supposed to do?" Evie quirked an eyebrow, ready to respond, but Jay plowed on. "We kind of argued, but not really. He was about to say that he loved me but I interrupted him and reminded him about his homework."

"Homework?"

"Yeah."

Evie slapped his arm. "Seriously?"

Jay leaned away and rubbed his arm where she assaulted him. "I didn't mean to, it just kind of happened!"

"Jay, I say this with love, but you're literally the most stupid person I've ever met," Evie chastised him, waving a finger at him.

"Yeah, I know." Jay let out a resigned sigh and asked, "What about you and M?"

"She freaked out." Evie looked over at the window where they'd been talking. "She remembers what happened, I think. She's really embarrassed by everything and when I mentioned Ben wanting to see her, she did accidental magic and then ran away."

"Accidental magic? She only did that when—"

"—she was a child, I know. So does she. I think that's why she bolted," Evie surmised thoughtfully. "She's scared. I don't even know where to find her," Evie looked at Jay with a degree of fear now introduced to her eyes.

"Carlos went to the library. You make sure he's okay and I'll find Mal, yeah?" Jay asked, planning out loud.

"Okay." Evie scooted to the side of her bed and grabbed her shoes, lacing them to her feet. "Text me when you find her." They moved towards the door and shared a quick hug before parting ways, heading down opposite ends of the hallway. Evie let the rhythmic clunk of her blue combat boots against the hallway sooth her. Jay would find Mal and Evie would talk to Carlos and together they'd make everything better.

She entered the library and waved at the librarian before heading through the stacks, looking for a red clad teenager. "Carlos!" She breathed a sigh of relief when she finally spotted him. He stood at the sound of his name and Evie swept him into a bear hug. "Carlos," She spoke again, almost a plea.

Carlos hugged back, holding her upright. "I'm okay, Beri," he stepped back, holding her at arm's length. "Just trying to figure out what I missed."

Evie looked up and down at Carlos and sure enough, it was her sixteen-year-old freckled friend. She gave him a bright smile and they sat across each other at the table. "Carlos, it's so good to see you."

"I'd say the same, but you haven't really gone anywhere," Carlos joked, picking up his previously abandoned pen and twirling it through his fingers.

"Jay told me that you guys had a fight." Evie cut off the pleasantries and dove straight for her point. "Are you okay?"

Carlos's cheery demeanor visibly deflated and he jerked his shoulders in a semblance of a shrug. "I think I messed up," he admitted forlornly. "I'm not really sure what happened this morning but Jay freaked out big time."

Evie reached out and grabbed his hand, stopping the frantic tapping against the table as she gave his hand a gentle squeeze. "How much do you remember from being a kid?"

"I'm not sure, it's all kind of hazy. I remember being loved. I remember Susan and being carried by Jay. It's like I have the snippets of memories from being a kid and I don't know how to make sense of them with the rest of my memories." He flicked his eyes up at Evie, "Everything's jumbled around and I don't know what to do."

"So you've been working on homework instead?"

"Homework makes sense. Homework is just studying and learning, not sorting through memories and feelings and figuring out what to do so I don't lose my best friend forever." The way the corners of his lips tugged downward made Evie ache.

She squeezed his hand again and said, "I don't know how to make this better. But I do know that you forgot to carry you negative sign through the problem." She tapped a finger from her free hand on the example problem he'd been solving.

"Dang it!" Carlos looked down at his work and saw that she was indeed right. "Can you help me with this? I have a lot to learn and not a lot of time."

Evie gave him a small smile, "Of course I can, C. By the end of today you'll be a math expert."

"You're the best, Evie. So what's going on with this law of cosine stuff?" Evie shifted so that she was sitting next to Carlos and launched into an explanation, glad that her friend was beside her, safe and sixteen.

* * *

Of course she was by the Verbena patch, Jay thought wryly to himself. As a child, she'd been fascinated by the flowers, insisting that they visit anytime Jay took them outside. The purple flowers were not the first place he'd thought to look and he'd actually stumbled upon her quite accidentally. He had been walking through the gardens on his way to the park when he saw her sitting on a nearby stone bench, drawing shapes in the damp earth with her bare feet.

She was in her pajamas, matching white shorts and tee shirt with purple polka dots. Her favorite pajamas during her five weeks as a child had somehow grown with her. Her ankles were spattered with mud from the pathways to the bench and her hands were clenched around the front edge of the bench.

He sat next to her and looked down at the scrapbook in his hand. He'd pinched it from Evie's room before they left and he now hoped that it was the right move to make.

Mal was the first to speak. "It's petrichor."

"What?"

"The smell," Mal gestured around them with a swirl of her foot. "Rain on the dirt or something like that. Doug taught me that word when I was," she swallowed heavily, "You know, a kid."

Jay hummed affirmatively, then dropped the sparkly scrapbook on Mal's lap without comment. Mal gave him a questioning look and he gestured for her to open it. She rolled her eyes and cracked open the cover.

"So what?" She asked, "It's just a bunch of pictures of Carlos and I as kids. What's your point?"

"Wow," Jay drawled playfully, "Conceited much?"

Mal pushed at his shoulder and sneered without malice. This was how they communicated, with snarky banter, and Jay was comforted with how easily they fell into their old sarcastic ways.

"What am I looking for?" Mal asked, turning a page and cringing at one of the pictures.

"Don't look at yourself. Look at everyone else in the photos. Look at Evie and me and Ben and Lonnie and Doug and I think there's even one with Kevin somewhere in there," Jay said, pointing at various photos.

"You're all smiling?" Mal fished, still not clear on Jay's point.

"M, we aren't just smiling. We're happy." Mal lifted her eyes from the photos to look at Jay as he continued to speak. "I know you're embarrassed by some of your memories, but you don't have to be."

"So you wouldn't be embarrassed if you had memories of Evie bathing you or of jumping on Ben and making him carry you around? You wouldn't be embarrassed by throwing a tantrum in the middle of class? Don't lie to me like that Jay." Mal's voice increased in volume during her rant and ended with a scoff directed at Jay.

"Maybe if all that happened when I was sixteen. Mal, you were four. You didn't know better, you just acted like how a four-year-old acts. Besides since we did witness that and we all still want to be your friend, don't you think that means you're stuck with us?"

Mal let out a surprised laugh and leaned into Jay. "Well, when you put it that way it's not as bad." Her lips quirked up briefly.

"I knew I could make you see logic," Jay teased affectionately and they fell into a comfortable silence. Mal released a tired sigh and Jay said, "We need to go back eventually because they're a lot of people concerned about you, but you know, I think it'd be okay if we waited another half hour or so."

"Thank you, Jay," Mal said and shut her eyes, letting the sun warm her face.

"Anytime Mal. I've got your back."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> None of us know how to fix ourselves, at least not entirely, not well enough.
> 
> —Catherine Lacey

"So the velocity must be seven meters per second?" Carlos looked at Evie hopefully, tapping his pencil on his circled answer.

"Wait," Mal reached for his paper, "How'd you get seven? I got thirty-four."

Carlos frowned and they compared their calculations. Evie smiled at the scene before her. After the start to the morning, Evie was convinced that nothing would go right today. However, Mal had joined her and Carlos to work on physics homework. Mal and Carlos were comfortable around each other, with no lingering awkwardness from waking up that morning twelve years older. Perhaps it was because each was the only one who could understand what the other was experiencing. It seemed that neither needed, or even wanted, to speak of what happened, at least not right now.

Evie slid her own fully worked problem toward them and said, "The answer is nineteen meters per second."

"What?" They chorused, nearly bumping heads as they looked up at Evie.

"I started with the—" Evie's phone chirped, cutting her explanation short. "Oh, it's Ben." Evie looked up at Mal, a clear question in her eyes.

"You can answer your phone without my permission," Mal allowed, feigning an air of indifference. Both Carlos and Evie knew she felt otherwise, but they wisely refrained from commenting.

Evie answered the call and greeted him. "Hey Ben!"

"Evie, are you guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're fine. Why?" Evie asked, quirking her head slightly at the oddness of his sudden and frantic inquiry.

"You didn't show up to lunch," he explained, less frantic now that he'd made contact but still with obvious tension in his voice. "You said that you'd meet us for lunch and then you didn't show, and Lonnie said Jay wasn't answering his phone." He paused for a breath. "I'm sorry, I was concerned."

Evie pulled her phone away from her ear to check the time and the screen showed her that they'd worked through the morning and long into the afternoon. "Oh Ben, I'm so sorry!" Evie apologized. Her free hand fluttered up to her chest. "We totally lost track of time. We're in the library working on homework and I—" Evie paused when she saw Mal gesturing at her to stop. She mouthed a sorry to Mal and bit her lip nervously as she waited for Ben to reply.

His voice returned, more hesitant this time. "Can I—I mean, well, would it be alright for me to see Mal now?" He sounded bashful and Evie knew that he desperately wanted to see Mal, but didn't want to overwhelm her. She covered her phone and whispered his request at Mal, gauging her response. Mal refused to meet Evie's eyes, even when Carlos prodded her with his eraser.

Evie frowned, then decided, "Yes. Meet us in the library. We're by the encyclopedias."

Mal's head snapped toward Evie and she combatted Mal's glare with a shake of her head. She finished the phone call and steeled herself for a berating. Carlos flicked his eyes back and forth between the two, unsure of which side to take.

"Evie, how could you?"

"Mal, the more you put this off, the worse it is going to get." Mal twitched slightly, clenching her pencil in her fist. Evie continued, "Look, just try. Carlos and I can go get something for us to eat. We'll be gone for a half hour tops. Ben is really concerned about you, please."

Mal exhaled noisily, lips scrunched in disapproval. "Fine," she huffed. "Not like you really gave me any choice."

Carlos reached out and gave Mal's hand a squeeze. "Susan would want you to be strong."

Mal gave him a sideways glance and then to Evie's surprise, laughed. "I guess for Susan, I can make an effort."

Evie ogled at Carlos, then Mal. She'd spent a better part of the morning trying to convince Mal to see Ben and then with one reference to a stuffed toy, Carlos had gotten her to smile and agree. "Right." She spoke slowly. "Come on Carlos, let's get some food."

He nodded and gave Mal one last smile before standing up and following Evie through the bookshelves.

* * *

Ben paused in front of the library door. He took a moment to catch his breath and smooth down his hair. His journey across campus had been more hurried than he'd like to admit. He was finally going to see Mal again. He entered and headed toward the section Evie had mentioned. He stopped in his tracks as he rounded a shelf and saw her purple hair. She was bent over a notebook, pencil scratching across the page to reveal something that only Mal knew.

"Mal," he choked, then cleared his throat. She looked up, fearfully, and Ben felt a stab of pain. "Mal," he whispered, this time a plea.

She stood, chair scraping noisily against the floor in her haste. "Ben?" Her voice warbled and she rushed across the room toward Ben. He enveloped her in a hug and they held each other closely. It took Ben a moment to realize that Mal was speaking, rambling an apology out to him.

Ben stepped back. "Mal, why are you apologizing?"

Her eyes flicked toward the ground and she shrugged. "Dunno, seemed necessary I guess."

Ben offered a half smile as he let his eyes drink her in. "I'm so happy to see you," he spoke. "Don't get me wrong, I loved little Mal, but I missed my girlfriend."

Mal's eyes flew from the floor to Ben's face, widening slightly. "Girlfriend?"

"Yes?" Ben quirked in response, not understanding her question.

"I just thought that you might not still, you know." She cleared her throat and shifted her weight.

"No, I don't know."

"That you might not want to date me," she finished her statement with a faint blush rising to her cheeks.

Ben lifted a hand and tenderly tucked a purple strand of hair behind her ear. He cupped her face, lifting it slightly so that they were peering into each other's eyes. "Mal, I'm not sure if you're aware of this, but I'm unequivocally in love with you. I have been for some time now. Why on earth would you think that this past month would change that?"

Mal pouted slightly, stopping when she realized what she was doing, then spoke. "My memories of being younger are mortifying. I don't know how you didn't just start laughing at me when you entered, I know I would have." She muttered, trailing off. Her eyes flicked to the side and then back, as if the eye contact was too much for her to bear.

Ben leaned forward and placed a soft kiss on her lips. "I've been waiting a long time to do that." He sighed, then said, "Mal, if it had been reversed and I had been turned four, would you have laughed at me?"

She pursed her lips and answered, "No."

"I'm not going to laugh at you either, okay?"

She nodded slowly and her mouth formed a tentative smile. "Ben?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you more than strawberries." She laughed after her confession, relieved, and Ben couldn't help but to smile. He leaned down to kiss her again, but wasn't very effective because neither of them could stop smiling. It was the first time Mal had said that she'd loved him and Ben felt like he was floating. He had said it many times before, always making sure that Mal knew that there was no pressure for her to say it back. But now, hearing her say those words, Ben felt like nothing could bring him down.

Ben's heart fluttered as Mal gave him a rare but genuine toothy smile. She grabbed his hand, a form of her equally rare displays of affection and Ben knew that they would be okay. Maybe not today or tomorrow, but together they would be okay.

* * *

The rest of the weekend passed by in a blur as Mal and Carlos balanced catching up on classes with all of their friends who wanted to hang out with them again, now that they were returned to their proper age. Carlos was surprised at how friendly so many people were with them now and he wasn't entirely sure how that change happened.

Classes were not fun. He and Mal had tried their best, but no matter how much effort was applied, they discovered that it's simply impossible to learn five weeks of material in two days. Thankfully, their teachers were sympathetic to their plight and allowed extensions on every missed assignment. In every free moment, Carlos had his face pressed to a book. He'd been doing rather well in his classes before the whole incident and he didn't want to lose what he'd worked so hard to achieve.

As a result, avoiding people came very naturally. He spent late nights in the library, and often times Mal would join him in a comfortable silence, sans the turn of a page or the scratch of a pencil. Mal had never been very studious but even she admitted that she need to put in effort as to not be left behind their fellow classmates, at least academically. Also, she, like Carlos, had a quiet desire to recluse herself away from people. Mal had not been excited about this newfound attention and Carlos had invited her to study with him, giving her an opportunity to withdraw herself from social environments.

Occasionally they were joined by Evie or Ben, rarely Doug or Kevin, but never Jay. Carlos couldn't help but feel slightly hurt by that. After Saturday, Mal and Ben had slowly worked to grow comfortable with each other again. Carlos and Jay had taken the opposite route and Carlos only really saw him when they returned to their room at night to sleep, soundlessly preparing for bed.

They didn't even have Tourney anymore after Carlos quit the team. Logically, it was the right thing to do. He hadn't practiced in over a month and he was swamped with late assignments, but he still couldn't forget the look of betrayal that crossed Jay's face when Carlos showed up to practice to formally notify the coach that he was leaving the team.

Now they were nearing the end of the week and Carlos hadn't been more stressed in his life. Between depriving himself of sleep so he could work on school work, and the palpable tension between himself and Jay, Carlos felt like a frayed hair tie that was about to snap.

"You should go to bed." Mal's voice broke him out of his thoughts and he slowly moved his gaze from his paper to her face.

"So should you, it's nearly two in the morning," he replied, blinking heavily. Mal frowned at him, strands of purple hair falling loose of the messy ponytail she'd tied them back in. He made to respond again, but as he opened his mouth a loud yawn escaped instead of his prepared argument.

Mal looked smug and Carlos closed his book, trapping loose sheets of paper inside. He looked at Mal and saw that the bags under her eyes were a pretty close match for his own. When Mal wasn't studying, she was practicing magic. Carlos was the only was aware of this because she only practiced during their late night study sessions when she'd decided she was done with homework, while he had continued to work. Evie had told Mal about the accidental magic that she'd done as a kid and now Mal was working to recreate that wordless magic but with more control. So far all she'd been able to accomplish was making the pages of Carlos's book rustle slightly.

It didn't matter that she hadn't had much success yet. What was more important to her, at least how Carlos viewed it, was that she had a goal that she could work towards that didn't involve school or messy emotions.

"Come on," Carlos said, standing and gesturing for her to join him. They passed by the empty librarian bullpen and through the corridors. Carlos and Mal parted, whispering good byes in the still night air, as if speaking could possibly disturb the quality of the night.

Carlos snuck into their room, only opening the door as far as absolutely necessary for him to skirt by, not wanting the light intruding from the hallway to wake Jay. He quietly made his way around the room, preparing for bed and freezing whenever Jay shifted. He relaxed when he finally slipped under the covers, comforted by the familiar feeling of his sheets on his body and Susan in his arms. Carlos snuggled up to the stuffed dog and thanked his lucky stars that Jay hadn't mentioned that he still slept with the toy. Though it was possible that his omission was because they weren't speaking to each other, but that was a thought for another day.

Carlos shut his eyes and suddenly felt heavy, as if he was sinking into his bed from the weight of his exhaustion. He let sleep overcome him, greeting the darkness like an old friend.

* * *

Jay opened his eyes wide, suddenly awake, though he didn't know why. He heard a whimper from beside him and turned. Carlos was experiencing a nightmare, he realized, and had awoken Jay with his noises. Jay pushed the covers back and crossed the short distance to Carlos's bed. Carlos was curled around Susan, brows drawn tight and body tense. Jay placed a hand on Carlos's shoulder, gently shaking him until the whimpers stopped and their eyes met in the dim moonlight.

"Wha—?" Carlos croaked, leaning on his elbow as he moved to a more upright position.

"Nightmare," Jay said. He stepped away, fully intending on returning to his own bed. This was how Jay and Carlos functioned, this was how they coped with nightmares, and Jay had no intention of changing what they had already proved worked.

"Wait!"

Jay froze at Carlos's sudden and strange plea. Intrigued, he remained where he stood and angled his body so he was facing Carlos, tangled in the sheets.

"I don't want you to leave me." Carlos had streams of tears on his face that Jay assumed were remnants of his nightmare.

"I'm not leaving," Jay countered. Out of all of the possible conversations that they could've had to break their silence, he hadn't imagined that it'd be a delirious three a.m. conversation. "I'll be right over here in my bed."

"No, you're not!" Carlos blurted, almost hysterically. "You can't leave me, please!"

Jay moved over towards Carlos's bed. Intuition told him that Carlos was distraught from his dream and that he hadn't quite separated those events from real life yet. Part of Jay felt smug that Carlos was dreaming about him, but another part felt guilty. It was Jay's fault that Carlos had a nightmare. Jay sat on Carlos's bed up at the headboard so that he was sitting parallel to Carlos and lifted his arms to give Carlos a hug. Carlos melted into Jay and allowed himself to be held. "I'm not leaving you." Jay spoke with finality and confidence, more than he realized he possessed. "I promise."

Jay rubbed Carlos's back, waiting for him to calm down and then jerk away in repulsion. After Jay had made that scene on Saturday, he'd deserve Carlos' ill-will. He was very aware that Carlos had been avoiding him all week and every time he'd found himself missing the smaller boy, he told himself to suck it up. All of his suffering was his own fault.

When Carlos seemed to calm down, contrary to Jay's expectations, he did not fling himself away from Jay. Instead he remained where he was, tucked into Jay's arms.

"Do you hate me?"

Jay felt the vibrations of Carlos's words from the hand he had laid on Carlos's back. Jay paused his motion and Carlos tensed, only relaxing when Jay began to trace shapes into Carlos's arm with his thumb.

"I don't think I could hate you if I tried," Jay admitted. Every word was charged with the weight of its emotional significance.

Carlos pushed far enough away from Jay that they were facing each other, but remained close enough so that their legs made contact at several points. Jay let his right arm drop to the pillow, encircling Carlos without touching him.

Carlos peered into Jay's eyes and said, "I'm sorry about that, earlier I mean. You don't have to stay, I was just upset and—"

Carlos stopped when Jay lifted a hand and gently cupped Carlos's face. "I messed up," Jay confessed, in lieu of an apology. Jay could've stopped there. He knew by the look in Carlos's eyes that the boy knew what he was trying to say, but he kept going. Carlos deserved better. "I panicked when I woke up in bed with you because I wanted it so badly. I was afraid that for you it was just lingering emotions from being four so I, well…"

"Chastised me?"

Jay cringed, but nodded. He wished that they'd turned on a light so he could see every change in Carlos's expressions as he talked but it was too late. They were so close and if either of them moved to flick on the light switch, they'd shatter the mood. "I'm sorry, Carlos." He finished his apology lamely, not wanting to seem as if he'd made excuses, but still wanting to justify his actions.

Carlos bit his lip and Jay stretched his thumb out, running it over Carlos's lip to make him release his lip. Every time Carlos bit his lip, Jay had the intense urge to kiss his worries away, but that hardly seemed appropriate at the moment.

"I thought I had crossed a line that couldn't be fixed." Carlos's eyes darted across Jay's face, briefly stopping at his lips. "I was afraid that I'd broken us."

"I'm not letting you go that easily," Jay breathed. They were close enough that he could feel Carlos's breaths on his skin. "Carlos, I—Can I?"

"Please," Carlos insisted, closing the distance himself. Carlos's lips were warm as they shared a tentative but gentle kiss. The kiss was over much too soon for Jay but he moved back when he felt Carlos pull away.

"Is that okay?" Jay asked. He felt as if every nerve ending was on fire and his lips were tingly. All he wanted to do was kiss Carlos again and again until they melted into oblivion, but he didn't want to scare Carlos away.

"Yes," Carlos responded breathily. "Kiss me," he requested and honestly, who was Jay to refuse such a mutually beneficial invitation?

Their lips met again, lazily moving against each other, not for lack of desire but rather because it was still three in the morning. Jay felt more awake than ever but he knew how exhausted Carlos must be and matched the pace set by the smaller boy. They traded kisses, each one growing shorter and shorter until Jay pulled back and said, "You need to sleep."

"I don't wanna," Carlos protested half-heartedly, yawning widely in the middle of his sentence. "Stay?" He pleaded with his sinfully brown eyes.

Jay nodded and they crawled under the covers, laying on their sides, facing each other. Jay moved and gave Carlos another soft kiss. "Goodnight," he whispered. Carlos smiled in return before his eyelids fluttered shut.

Jay took in Carlos's smell—his wonderful smell—and only succumbed to sleep when his eyelids demanded him to, no longer allowing him to admire every freckle that graced Carlos's cheeks. Jay had refused to admit his feelings for his best friend for too long and now that he had entertained them and even acted on them, he knew he was a goner. He was in love with his best friend and he was so happy.


	12. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kiss away the past as you head towards the future.
> 
> —Imania Margria

"Hurry up! You were on the tourney team! I thought you'd be faster!" Mal sniped over her shoulder as she and Carlos ran through the hallways, cumbersome book bags heaving with their movement.

"Being on the team doesn't make you good!" Carlos returned, breathing heavily when they stopped at Mal's door. She fumbled to unlock the door and Carlos said, "Besides, you came to the games and saw me play—" They threw their bags inside and Mal shut and locked the door. "You know my job was to set Jay up for the goals."

"Whatever," Mal pocketed her key and they continued their run to the tourney stadium. They clambered up the steps to the bleachers just as the whistle was blown, signaling the start of the game. Evie waved at them, and gestured to the seats she and Lonnie had saved for them.

Mal and Carlos fell into their seats and shared a laugh at their close timing.

"I'm so glad you guys could make it," Evie said, giving Mal a side hug.

"I wasn't sure we would," Carlos responded and Mal nodded.

"Yeah, Mr. Ramirez was relentless. I don't think he wanted to meet with us again so he packed everything that was left into today's session," she sighed, then rolled her eyes.

She and Carlos had spent the morning in the library making up the last few tests they'd missed. The school had assigned dates on which they had to show up to the library and take a certain amount of tests and today had been their last testing session. Normally they had enough time before the tourney game, as their tests were scheduled for Saturday mornings and the games were in the afternoon but this session took particularly long as they had three exams each to take rather than the usual two. But after several months, they had finally finished making up all of their work and were completely caught up with the curriculum.

"We should celebrate tonight," Lonnie suggested, pausing to gasp as Ben and Jay completed an excellent give-and-go play that was blocked by the opposing goalie. "You're finally free of excessive homework! You can actually hang out with us again!" She giggled, leaning into Carlos fondly.

"Yeah, for like a week before studying for finals begins," Mal quirked, eyes following the fast paced game.

They cheered as Chad snuck in a goal and the boys hugged each other excitedly before setting up for another start.

When they returned to their seats Lonnie leaned over and asked, "So what're all your plans for the summer?"

Carlos and Mal froze. In their quest to rescue their grades, neither had given any thoughts to what happened afterwards. "I have no idea," Carlos commented.

Evie reached a hand across Mal and patted Carlos's knee comfortingly. "Ben invited us to stay in his castle over the summer, I accepted. I hope that's okay with you guys?" Her eyes never left the game, except to gaze over at the band affectionately.

Mal let out a small laugh of relief. Of course Evie and Ben had already figured it out. Thank God for those two. "I don't know," She spoke, hiding her relief under layers of sarcasm, "I think I want to survey my other options first."

Carlos hummed then said, "Castle or Isle? That's a tough choice Mal, but I think I'll go castle."

"I admit, I've grown fond of this cushy lifestyle." Mal agreed, sending Carlos a small smile.

"That's awesome!" Lonnie bubbled. "We're definitely going to have to hang out sometime this summer. Maybe we can finally go to the beach together without any four-year-olds."

Mal stuck her tongue out at Lonnie and the group laughed before groaning at the opposing team managing to score a goal.

"This is going to be a close match," Evie worried.

"Mhmm," Lonnie nodded, sitting on the edge of her seat. "Jay's a beast though. I don't know how we'd have survived this season without him. Do you think he'll try to play college ball after high school?" She posed her question absently, not expecting an answer, but Carlos found himself giving her question some thought.

What were they going to do after high school? He'd never needed to think about it ever. He'd always lived on a day by day schedule. He didn't know how to plan for the future. They still had two more years, but the other day Jane had been complaining to Audrey about some fancy shmancy test score that she needed to get into her dream college. Was he already supposed to be thinking of this stuff?

The crowd cheered and Carlos returned his focus to the game, cheering loudly for his boyfriend, who waved and blew kisses at Carlos every once in awhile.

"You guys are so gross," Evie teased before blowing a kiss to Doug. Carlos laughed and let himself relax and enjoy the game.

* * *

Carlos took another sip of his soda before setting it on the table next to the couch he'd been perched on for most of the evening. After their narrow victory, claimed through Ben's masterful assist to Jay in the last seconds of the game, a group of them had decided to celebrate in one of the lounges around the castle. Carlos separated himself from the group, nursing the sinking feeling that had been developing during the match.

What was he going to with his life? Now that he wasn't in survival mode, he had options, more than he knew what to do with. He toyed with the coaster, and jumped when the cushion next to him dipped, jostling him from his thoughts.

Jay placed a kiss on Carlos's temple and smiled widely. "Why so mopey?"

Carlos shook his head fondly and leaned into Jay's side as Jay wrapped an arm around Carlos's shoulders.

"Thinking about the future," Carlos admitted.

"Eugh," Jay made a sound of disgust. "Why?"

Carlos shrugged demurely. "Because we have one now."

Jay didn't respond for a few moments and panicked, Carlos said, "I'm sorry. We should be celebrating the win, I didn't mean to bring down the mood."

"No, Carlos, don't apologize." Jay's fingers traced shapes into Carlos's arm. "This is important to you. I just, I dunno. I have no clue what I'm going to do. Do you?"

"No."

"Then we're in the same boat."

"Have you ever thought about going to college?" Carlos asked looking up at Jay who took the opportunity to softly kiss the tip of Carlos's nose.

"More school than required? No thanks," Jay laughed.

"You could get a scholarship and play Tourney," Carlos suggested, referencing Lonnie's earlier comment. "I was thinking of applying at least."

Jay hummed, acknowledging that he was listening, but took a moment to think. "Maybe," he allowed. "What would you do in college?"

"Engineering maybe? Computer science? I'm not sure. I like technology and making stuff, there has to be something for that." Carlos sighed.

"I do know one thing," Jay quirked.

"What's that?"

"Whatever we do, we'll do it together. I'm never leaving you, Carlos."

Carlos smiled, gazing into Jay's eyes. He lifted his chin and Jay leaned down, capturing his lips in a searing kiss. A joking hoot at their display caused Carlos to pull back. Jay flipped the finger at the culprit, one of his teammates, and kissed Carlos again, briefly.

"I mean it."

"What?"

"Wherever you want to go, I'll follow."

Carlos grabbed Jay's hand and squeezed, "Even if I want to move to the tundra and become a salmon fisher?"

"Just tell me when and I'll order a parka and a net."

They laughed quietly and Carlos leaned his head on Jay's shoulder, affectionately curled into Jay's side.

"I love you so much."

Carlos lifted his head, snapped to attention. A breathless laugh escaped him as he beamed goofily. He pulled Jay close and kissed him which was proved difficult as he couldn't stop smiling enough other than small kisses.

"I love you too," Carlos spoke sincerely. Jay kissed him again, ignoring the cat call from Mal.

"Ahem," Mal coughed, gathering their attention. "While some view passionately making out as a form of celebration, we'd like to keep this party rated PG please."

Jay waved her off dismissively, but shifted slightly so that he wasn't facing Carlos directly. "What's the real reason you're over here?"

"Ben wants you. They're about to do their weird tradition thing." Mal rolled her eyes as Jay popped up from the couch, causing Carlos to fall into the spot Jay abandoned.

"I totally forgot!" He exclaimed. "I'll be back in fifteen, C!"

Mal settled on the couch near Carlos as they watched Jay near his teammates. The team had a tradition of running a lap around the school, taking turns carrying those who scored. Carlos was glad he didn't have to participate anymore because he'd never quite understood the appeal. Jay however, relished in the victory lap and gave Carlos a smile across the room before the boys jogged out.

"He loves me," Carlos commented quietly, almost in shock.

"Of course he does you dolt," Mal scoffed. "Anyone with eyes could've told you that." She tried to give him a stern look, but ended up grinning instead.

"You're smiley," Carlos projected. "What, did you win a lifetime supply of strawberries or something?"

"No," Mal pushed playfully at Carlos and he spotted the cause of her joy, sparkling on her finger.

"Um, no way missy, you're not getting married," he chastised. "You're too young! Jay will totally freak out and Evie—she'll, I don't know but I—"

"Stop!" Mal interrupted him. "Chill, geez, no one's getting married. I'm sixteen for evil's sake. Marriage? Ugh, gross." She wrinkled her nose and Carlos felt himself relax.

"Good. So then what?"

"Ben gave it to me." She lifted her hand in the air to model the delicate ring. "It's a promise ring."

"What's a promise ring?" Carlos questioned.

"Ben had to explain it to me but it's a thing they do on Auradon to show love or something." Mal shrugged nonchalantly, but looked at the ring with earnest, betraying her obvious emotions toward Ben.

"It's beautiful," Carlos commented and Mal gave a small smile. "But wait 'til Evie sees it. She might burst one of your ear drums."

"Oh, I know. I have time though, she's distracted at the moment. Audrey just agreed to go on a date with Jane and Evie is absolutely ecstatic. Between that and Kevin trying to flirt with Lonnie, Evie has a lot of other things to gush over before she'll notice my ring."

"Jane and Audrey? What? And Lonnie and Kevin? When did this all happen?" Carlos asked, surprised by the sudden onslaught of development.

"We've been out of the game for several months, C, and its high school. Things happen." Mal tucked a piece of purple hair behind her ear. "Besides maybe if you and Jay weren't always attached at the mouth, you'd stay up to date on the gossip." She poked his side as she teased him. Mal verbally teased Carlos and Jay the most out of their friend group, but Carlos knew she never meant any malice. Evie had told him that Chad had once made an offensive comment about his and Jay's relationship and then Chad's hair had mysteriously began to fall out after Mal passed by.

"Whatever," he laughed, poking her back. "You have the advantage of having Evie for a roommate. She always knows what's going on."

Mal hummed in agreeance and looked around before leaning in and whispering conspiratorially, "Do you want to go throw some water balloons as the team runs by?"

"I can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing right now," Carlos grinned mischievously. They sped to the balcony where Mal had already prepared buckets of water spheres, each sphere held together with her strengthening magic. They threw the water at the tourney team and laughed so hard that Carlos had to stop and clutch his stomach.

Everything would be okay, he knew this. He didn't know what the future held, but he had his friends, he had Jay, and knew that they would never abandon him. Carlos was probably the happiest sixteen-year-old to ever exist and he knew nothing could take his joy from him.


End file.
